NothingNew

Hey, thanks for the post! Since Masha holds some belief in trickle-down economics (even if she doesn't have the greatest grasp on the specific political terms) she finds herself equally split between the Royal Party and the Commoners' Party, largely depending on the policies each would be pushing at the time - She believes that the economy of the New Kingdom can be improved by further trade and integration with alien megacorporations and the increased wealth it would provide to the nobles will in part increase the living standards of the lower class, and while she certainly sees a lot of the appeal in the Commoner's Party since they're the only (named) party that promote themselves directly toward her class, she worries that an unchecked increase in democratic voting will lead to too large of a split in people's opinions, which may end in another war. For these reasons, Masha finds herself most against the Officers Party. Considering the crime rates (and the likely exaggeration of such that would reasonably appear in the news) Masha views the DPRA as a nation unable to properly uphold its own laws. To her, it shows an example of how the Commoner's Party might lead to the New Kingdom returning to a political system they were trying to avoid in the first place in returning to their own nation. Her feelings toward the PRA are of course conflicted - It's important to bare in mind that her views toward that period of history is caused by the limited world-view of her age at the time - In growing older, she has somewhat of a better grasp on why the war occurred, at the very least the history of it. To her, the Tajaran caste system is just a part of biology, it's not something that can really be escaped or avoided and if treated wisely, intergalactic diplomacy could offer a lot of benefits to Adhomai. She wouldn't necessarily be against living in the PRA, although the nation takes a lot of blame in her own mind for the cause of the war in the first place. Masha and her family were fairly passive followers of the Ma'ta'ke Pantheon, in that its mythology is accepted and believed as a part of history, the existence of each god and what they represent is so, even if they weren't the most devout. Well that was fun to write. I hope that answers your questions, let me know if you have any others.

BYOND Ckey: (NothingNew) Discord username: (glassofwater8642) Character names: (Mira Adame, Juliet Island, Ashlynn Lowe, Dayana Solacia, Za’Akaix’Synn K’lax, Ra’Akaix’Vev Zo’ra) Species you are applying to play: (Tajara) ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: #9f8b70 (Beaver Brown Hharar) Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: I have indeed. 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 species?: I quite enjoy Victorian-era history, historical sites and museums, and the mixture of that era with the often retro-science fiction theming of Aurora would be quite fun. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Variations between each Tajaran is heavily divided, not only due to the differences in ethnicity and the separate nations which encompass Adhomai, but for each social class and potential political stance dependant on that character’s unique background, which makes for potentially very interesting conversation. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Masha Mes’sir Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. Born in 2443, during her early childhood Masha grew to see the country she was born into re-enter war at the age of seven, as she would spend the latter half of her maturation with her father volunteering for the war - A time period she remembers well, albeit certainly not fondly, with her mother often sending her out along with her little brother to spend hours waiting in line to gather what they could with the allowance her family were provided during what was felt to be everlasting shortages. By the time of her maturation, and her own entry into the working world she found a somewhat steady position at a local inn that had managed to somewhat re-establish itself near the end of the rebellion as shortages began to dwindle and the regain of the agricultural sector, aptly due to the many nobles who could afford to travel through Nusinsk. At first serving tables and washing dishes, before working in the kitchen. While she enjoyed the position, having received very little culinary education, it was of no high pay and as the economic gap between the commoners and the nobles grew, so did the surrounding pollution, equally altering the pricing and quality of locally sourced fish - A couple years after the passing of King Azunja the owners of the inn felt it could no longer keep up with the increasingly surrounding competition, moving their business closer toward the upper parts of Northern Harr’massir. Having been born and spent the somewhat happier duration of her early life within the People’s Republic of Adhomai’s occupation, she often wondered what it was all for - The senseless violence that was all instigated, albeit originally by the PRA - As told by her parents, and a belief she very much held to be true, the re-establishment of the Monarchy was undoubtedly important - But what was the point of it all if the average person continues to struggle to feed their own young, let alone themselves? For a lot of people, the newfound presence of interstellar corporations provided a newfound, otherwise unprecedented opportunity to find work - Being unable to afford a degree, and unwilling to repeat her cycle of poverty by finding similar work, she sought work with Orion Express, due to their lower hiring practices, and the hope of one day earning a better living than what could be found on Adhomai. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. Outside of the effects occurring on Adhomai itself (largely outlined above), the consequences of the Phoron crisis has potential affects on illegal emigration, but otherwise fairly few. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? Along with Nanotrasen, she views Orion Express with a set amount of positivity, due to their positive impact on the local economy and providing her with a potential escape from poverty, however true that may be.

It sounds promising, but I question how many players precisely would be required for this to work well - I tend to play a lot of mid-to-low pop rounds, If there's only ten-to-twenty players, and a portion of that are actors, it leaves for a lot less crew during such rounds. I do like how Secret is still a votable option in case this system doesn't pan out as well for lower pop rounds, though. Also, ideally there would be good enough room in that most missions don't require everything to occur off-ship, as I feel like it bears too much resemblance to Colonial Marines in terms of its overall round loop, where a distress beacon is picked up, the ship flies to it (if there's a bridge crew in our instance) and then the horizon deals with the threat, and it would equally pull characters out and off of the Horizon too often. Time as mentioned here before, may also be an issue, it would be nice if there was an option to leave mid-round during one of these rounds, and the time it would take for storytellers to set up the round would equally need to be factored in. Another concern of mine is that the fact that the Horizon is primarily a Phoron Mining and Research vessel would get lost, if there's a considerable amount of danger, the SCC's involvement in one of these missions, along with the possible risk of loss of assets on what is supposed to be their most expensive project combined would need to be justified each round (even if it's non-canon). I would rather the overall story for each of these "mission rounds" to be events occurring to the Horizon and its crew itself, as opposed to the Horizon getting purposefully involved in some distress beacon. (The SCC is not a humanitarian aid charity.)

Personally, I don't necessarily mind there being high-intensity events, I just wouldn't want every one of them to involve a round of TGMC - You could just as equally have some event based around survival, or working together towards a common goal. Something more than going from point A to point B with guns - While I really did enjoy the previous arc, it's not always easy to justify such events within the corporate setting.

Well, even if we're going by the statistics, seeing as the second-most played species for this role at roughly 1/6th of humans the past year were Unathi, followed by IPCs (125 altogether) - It's not an insignificant amount, especially when contrasted with the fact that only two Skrell played within the past year.

Sort of like in-game achievements? I sort of like this idea, it seems harmless enough. Little plastic tokens with cheap, corporate sticker labels. Where an office employee can be an office employee. Attend enough events and you can play Pogs with them. I feel like a digital listing would seem most professional, but the SCC giving you some cheap merchandise a T-shirt or a bracelet for volunteering would fit the setting, too.

I don't really have much to add which hasn't been said by other people here, but I would like to give my perspective on a few things regarding canonicity and a few topics people have brought up. I've been playing Aurora sort of consistently since around December now and have been playing space station specifically for a couple years or so give or take (all different levels of role-play, come to think of it) so my perspective may come from someone who is a lot newer to the server compared to others. Likewise, my time tends to be fairly limited, and I don't always have the time to play on Aurora every day, and when I do it's usually in the mornings from around 5 AM (GMT) right before the population of the server dies off. Sometimes on the weekends I might get the opportunity to play Aurora in the evenings when it's high-pop (sometimes you'll get a good population in the evening at 6 PM on Sunday which is fairly nice) but that isn't always the case as I may very well end up preoccupied with something else, and while during the last event I was quite lucky in that each event-round took place roughly every two weeks, giving me a good chance to arrange my schedule to take part in the events there, I might not get the chance to take part in every single event in the future. In and of itself that's fine, but I don't think there should be some pressure for players to attend every event round, nor do I want non-cannon interactions to be removed from the server (traitors primarily, some expeditions, when a character accidentally ingests Phoron or goes AFK next to a bloody carp, et cetera) as this would remove points of interest on the server for anyone who plays during off-peak times or has timezone or scheduling conflicts, rendering the server's participants only truly to those in the good ol' US of A. (Bald eagle squawk) For starters, I don't think medals or accolades are the best way to go about it, as such would only really make sense for certain characters (and really goes against the corporate, workplace-oriented setting) like the head of security, or the captain. "Oh, see him? That's Billy Bird, the security guard. He has five medals and destroyed a set of pirates with his bare hands and fought in Spur-War 3. We don't know why he still works here or why a Phoron mining vessel was the most relevant in bringing the end of what was practically an entire war. Anyway, I've got to go back to hauling crates." It's a bit silly, isn't it? Falters in character retention occurs for a lot of different reasons as well, mostly just because people either get bored of a character, that specific job role, move on from the Aurora server itself, or the role slots are filled up each time they want to play that specific character. Personally, I don't mind less-played characters joining event rounds to jump off a building, swim in the sewers or beat up the norinori mascot. It's funny. That's my opinion on that, really. It's just really funny - Those things happen at real-world mass-gatherings too, people can be really foolish. Something that has been brought up that I would like to add on is that each event (or most from what I can tell) seems to involve some form of militia or battle and that's fine every once in awhile, but I would really like to see more corporate-themed events that are more relevant to the Horizon and the SCC as a set of companies, like events themed around corporate espionage (We have Einstein Engines still - What are they up to? They're still competitors, right?), or the release of new experimental technology/products that might use Phoron in some way. Maybe a ship full of very different people all from a variety of backgrounds would make a perfect testing ground for new technology or products. The SCC is a large company, and the Horizon is very expensive with a huge variety of different people, a lot of other organisations or companies would like to get their meat of the pie in reaching those onboard there for a variety of different reasons - Not just to harm them, but for public relation/marketing or research purposes, too. It's low-stakes, but some of my favourite antag rounds were of just some random famous extranet star or corporate executive showing up to do something unprecedented. I'd like to see that more often, it's not at all unusual for famous people (or people well-known to their niche (like corporate executives)) to visit prisons or oil rigs, and it would be great to see some low-stake events like that which don't require as much effort into mapping. There is an entire realm of possibility here that (do forgive me) I feel is under-utilised, as we instead focus on militias or combat-oriented events. I think this would help with character retention in some way too, since it's a lot broader and doesn't inherently involve characters who are combat-oriented. People may still die or get into heaps of trouble for intervening in something that's very important to the company, and the decisions characters make either individually or as a whole during non-combat oriented events can effect news articles too. Maybe we could have cannon-news reporters at the scene of these events to interview random people? Or if it is a public-relations thing, specific responses/reactions could be tested or probed. As a far newer player myself, something that does bother me and affects character/player retention is that sometimes when you're involved in something a more-established character may join mid-round and the people you were previously working with will ignore you or your actions in favour of listening or interacting with the more-established character, to the point where you can't really interact with the round any more. It doesn't always happen, but it does happen often enough for me to pick up on it occurring. I hope this post makes sense, my thoughts tend to be fairly jumbled. I enjoyed the last event, and I'm very interested to see what other events might entail. I just hope there's room for non-cannon, player-set events too, for the fun of it. Aurora tends to have a very specific, anti-antagonist culture that I hope can be improved or moved on from. This is a long post, apologies.

Finally, Larboard is actually to the left.

Ended up being a pretty fun Vampire round.

If you are currently experiencing real-world problems pertaining to mental health, it's better to seek out consultation from qualified psychiatrists or counsellors. Goolie beat me to the punch, but yes - Nobody here is qualified to offer a genuine consultation, the purpose of the room is an aspect in acting and character development, which should be purely entertaining for both players and spectators.

I think this makes sense, reading the lore pages alongside it - So Za’Akaix’Synn K’lax (Synn) as a part of the greater K'lax Hive would have been laid by Lesser Queen Leto, and trained in VR while within the Hive-cell led by Ta'Akaix'Kur'Rin K'lax. Does that track? Do let me know if there's anything else that needs to be run through.

BYOND Ckey: (NothingNew) Discord username: (glassofwater8642) Character names: (Mira Adame, Juliet Island, Lelani Lowery, Ashlynn Lowe) Species you are applying to play: (Vaurca) ------------------------------ General Whitelist Requirements What colour do you plan on making your first alien character?: #00503c (Leto Akaix) Have you read the lore pages for the species you wish to be whitelisted for?: I have, including pages on the Izweki Hegemony and how they may pertain to a character from the K’lax hive. 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 species?: Eusociality within insects is greatly fascinating, and while the old comparison to traditional caste systems still applies to Vaurca, the comparison to a superorganism, with each mote of a being acting like cells in a body (this particularly pertaining to Bound due to their behaviour, but also to the Unbound due to their own synchronicity to their respective hive) as exploring the responses of such a vastly different species to their newer environment and how their physiology greatly impacts their behavioural responses to such differences is what largely interests me with this species. What makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a human?: Vaurca are not only bred from a eusocial system, but spend great amounts of what would otherwise be their formative period inside Virtual Reality, with their experiences inside such often being conditioned alongside pheromones toward a specific function, because of this any experiences retained from outside of the hive influence their behaviour only additionally to the restraints of that character’s specific upbringing. Likewise, a lot of Vaurca tend to endure a speech impediment due to their quality of vocal augments alongside the differences in communication to their usual method of pheromones. While their emotions are (usually unconsciously) expressed through their own body language dependant on biology unique to Vaurca, their thoughts and emotions are better articulated through the Hivenet, of which every Vaurca and ship-bound cyborgs have access to. ------------------------------ Character Application Character Name: Za’Akaix’Synn K’lax Write a backstory for your character. This may include their origin, education, personality and how they arrived to the SCCV Horizon. With surmounting pressure on behalf of concerns regarding the continuation of Vaurca hives and Nanotrasen’s own dependency on Phoron, Za’Akaix’Synn K’lax (Synn) was laid from Ta’Akaix’Kur’Rin K’lax in the hive of Leto’yaht’zor as part of an effort to find a cost-reductive solution to the Phoron Crisis, with a slightly higher emphasis placed on the retrieval of artefacts that may advance either Phoron-extraction or lead to the discovery of new Phoron deposits. For this purpose, Leto’yaht’zor’s hive was chosen due to its queen’s emphasis on the preservation of historical knowledge and prior history of outsourcing Akaix Xenoarcheologists for the retrieval of Vaurca-related artefacts. Synn, having been bred for the purpose of being leased to the Nanotrasen and the SCC to aid in Phoron discovery has spent prior little-to-no time outside the confines of Virtual Reality, completing, or attempting to complete various trials, including ones made within the Vaulted subrealm as a part of their training. During this, either as a result of Synn’s own free will or as an extension of pheromonal conditioning, spent brief periods in between training within Erl’Ka, taking a primary interest in the early transitory period of Vaurca as they shifted from Warrior Nomadism to the Agricultural Revolution. Due to Synn’s experiences within Virtual Reality and their own physiological makeup, they mainly developed a curious personality obsessive in their efforts to recover new historical artefacts, their Warrior biology leading to a fervorous impatience, if not eagerness to explore new puzzles. While Synn possesses a deep enjoyment of their work, they spend most of their time outside of it in Virtual Reality, and would prefer to remain within it. How has the recent events of the Orion Spur impacted your character? Events such as the Phoron Scarcity, the Solarian Collapse or even the Invasions of Biesel for interstellar-wide affairs, while region-specific events such as the Peacekeeper Mandate, The Titan Rises or even Cold Dawn may impact your character. Impacted largely in part by the Phoron Crisis with Synn’s employer Nanotrasen seeking to hire K’lax in scientific positions an effort to save costs due to the potential for trained employees for far less wages, in turn, Synn’s employment within Nanotrasen was equally impacted by the food scarcity Leto’yaht’zor’s hive is currently having issues from, with necessary adjustments being made in the reduction of warriors kept in the hive to ensure that the most value is gleamed from each hive member, with the intentional leasing of Type B Vaurca such as Synn being made to meet the middle ground of resolving both issues. How does your character view the megacorporation they work for? Having been bred for the purpose of being leased to Nanotrasen in aiding the discovery of Phoron-related artefacts, Synn views their employment within Nanotrasen as more of an extension of furthering the values of the Leto’yaht’zor hive.

Right before round-end...

RE: RE: KONYANG

https://losspreventionmedia.com/interview-and-interrogation-training-the-use-of-silence/