Nikov

Critical Clone Disorder Critical Clone Disorder, or CCD, is a crippling and chronic disease caused by repeated or incorrectly performed cloning processes. Although modern cloning technology allows high-fidelity brain scans and neuron mapping, each subsequent cloning of the individual entails a certain degree of loss due to electronic signal noise, irregular neuron growth, and uneven conditions in the cloning medium. Due to the cumulative effect of repeated or hasty cloning, such minor errors inevitably accumulate until a failure of the brain pattern occurs. Physiologically, Critical Clone Disorder manifests itself in a blankness of human genetic expression. Eyes are almost invariably heavily pigmented, skin tone is neutral, and no distinguishable features can be seen in the patient's body. Hair follicles invariably fail to grow new hair while in the cloning tank. The resulting individual is bald, black-eyed, and vaguely multi-racial. Psychologically, Critical Clone Disorder involves explosive, emotional behavior and responses in conjunction with a systemic mental and physiological response to perceived stimuli with a dissociative view of self, combined with erratic, unpredictable behavioral irregularities. Such individuals often have no memories of their former lives or acquaintances and may even have difficulty remembering simple tasks and norms, such as removing a backpack or wearing clothes. These unfortunate victims are still legally Nanotrasen employees and citizens of their respective political organizations. Due to binding precedent, such employees cannot be terminated without violating corporate regulations. They are to be deemed incompetent for their prior training, demoted to assistant, given a randomly selected name, and sent to a new facility where prior acquaintances cannot distress or be distressed by them. The conduct of these "new" employees" is to be carefully monitored by Security personnel for irregularities, such as violent outbursts, pyromania, or self-destructive tendencies. Nanotrasen reminds all employees that their genetics research division is working full-time to create an economically viable cure for CCD even while cutting-edge research and development work improves cloning hardware. As always, Nanotrasen values all employees and the endurance of their productive personalities. Please observe all safety guidelines and regulations during work and remember to enable your suit sensors, as death-to-scan times reduce the quality of a scan geometrically. Additionally, Nanotrasen medical experts recommend a high-fidelity brain scan to be taken while living as a back-up of all personal life experience should your body be unrecoverable following an accident and a clone be required from Central Command's state-of-the-art facilities. Nanotrasen encourages wearing grey armbands to raise awareness of our co-workers and friends now enjoying new, productive experiences. Remember, CCD is not death. It is the beginning of a wondrous, child-like life and career with Nanotrasen.

I have encountered three varieties of Tajarans. Bear in mind all encounters were as Manfred Hayden. 1. Hard-working and decent Tajarans who roleplay the submissive order-taking well. 2. Lazy and promiscuous Tajarans who, none the less, often roleplay well. Might be furries OOC. I don't ERP so I don't give a damn, just hands off the human women. 3. Edgelords who SChLCK!- "Bitch I will fucking claw your eyes out for no goddamn reason if you even suggest I am fucking over the goddamn line of being a violent sociopath with bladed weapons for fingernails!!!" Group 3 is my problem. Not group 2. Group 3 might have a legitimate way to play a Tajaran fed up with the bullshit, I don't know, but they sure as hell would all be fired after their first incident.

My big interest is making it easier to stabilize a patient with two bits of gauze and two bits of ointment (not the full six-use stacks mind you) in everyone's Box, Emergency Use, Cardboard. On top of that, is one's local oxygen partial pressure in any way related to taking less suffocation damage from low blood or collapsed lungs? You could stabilize patients by giving them an oxygen tank and mask, then turning the dial up to 50 or so. No smoking.

It seems very far from a magic machine to me; a substance goes in and a cell culture produces the desired product. The blood machine could take some time to produce blood instead of instantly squirting it out. It would also produce exactly the blood type you require, compared to Cargo shipping a box of every blood type. What happens if you need two bags of A+ and the crate only ships one bag of A+? You've got to order yet another crate. Hope your patient lives while we tick up points, send the shuttle, unload and mail it to you.

Okay then. Irradiated blood. Although the game would congeal the blood if you made it blended and you'd still get universally lethal blood, save the AB+ dweebs. Everyone has good reason to shift their blood type to AB+ already, really. Vampires can't drink a blood bag. I tried. I even got caught for it. Waste of a vampire round. Chemistry can't synthesize nutriment, deliberately requiring hydroponics to provide the nutriment feedstock. Interdepartmental relationships are good. The machine should only be in the medbay's blood bank. Other departments can ask nicely. Suggestions you could use it to make ethically neutral meat implies eating blood from the tissues scraped from a living human's femur is A-OK. Cargo could order more blood bags... and it will show up ten minutes after you've stamped both the supply request and the death certificate. Reduce the pre-stocked blood supply. Make some work for the intern.

Machine name: Mar-O-Mat Description: A stainless steel fish tank of red marrow cell cultures in a bloody nutrient solution. The horror. The horror. Location: Somewhere a medical intern can access and operate. Possibly the cold storage room for blood. Sprite: You could probably recolor a chemistry lab machine with a little more red. Departments: Medical, interplaying with Hydroponics and the Kitchen for feedstock. Use: Insert a beaker containing nutriment. Inside, a GM red marrow culture churns out fresh blood, filling empty blood packs. The machine produces blood types to order, or possibly just universal donor (O-). Beaker contents get added to the packs as well, so sloppy work could give animal protein to a Skrell. Or spaceacillin and traumadol. Misuse: When e-magged, produces all blood types in a blend without labeling as such. This would poison anyone except perhaps an O+.

Add two uses of gauze and two uses of ointment to the Box, Emergency Use, Cardboard. Incidents of bleed-outs and infections would drop dramatically. What's the price of a few drug-store bandages and packets of antibiotic-laced Vaseline compared to an oxygen mask and tank? InB4 IPCs decry racism, even though they don't bleed or get infected.

So 66% forces a game mode, otherwise its the vote-weighted RNG. I would like the odds announced after the game mode so people can select their characters appropriately, but am still against declaring the game mode with the exception of the 66% push. I think it is important for balance purposes that teams aren't stacked against the antagonist, e.g. a nuclear round filling all Security slots with only one oblivious engineer. The other problem is that it does constitute metagaming to select a character based on the round type. This is just a statement of fact, not a condemnation.

I don't like the idea of a 51% 'tyranny of the majority'. Perhaps a 66% supermajority could force a game mode, but a simple 51% still means 49% don't want it. More often than not, a 51% vote will win its choice anyway. I must therefore disagree with the proposed change.

Say we have a round type vote. 2 vote Changeling. 2 vote Vampire. 2 vote Traitor. 3 vote Extended. It is clear that six of the nine players in this vote want some sort of antagonist on the station, but the voting majority, itself a minority, wins the vote. This is because our current voting system is winner-take-all for the largest individual selection. I consider this less than idea. Consider an alternative. In this, the voting scripts add the total number of votes (X), randomly selects a number 1 through X, and selects the game mode based on the number. So given the above votes we have... 1-2 are Changeling. 3-4 are Vampire. 5-6 are Traitor. 7-9 are Extended. Total is 9. The script chooses a number 1-9, compares it to the table, and then begins a round of Secret of that game type. In this way we can all vote for our favorite game mode, instead of our most likely to win preference, and the dice will determine which mode. Votes simply stack the odds for player preferences.

Things I'd want. 1. Slave pit. Remote flashes, electrified grilles, etc. Maybe some rough-spun rags for them to wear. 2. Lean and efficient medical bay. Box with surgical tools, surgical table, sleeper, scanner, chemicals etc. 3. Chemistry dispenser and grenades. Slavers with sleep-toxin chemical foam grenades? Yes please. You might think 'oh the griff' but consider it a less severe option compared to a plasma bomb when you need to drop a lot of people. 4. Locks on everything. 5. Teleporter beacon. In the slave pit, preferably. Can't just spacewalk fresh meat to the butcher. 6. Exterior turrets. Pew pew. No more rambo engineers. 7. Mass driver insertion; move all the shuttle movement points straight off of a solar array or other mess of floor rods. Have one mass driver pointing each of the cardinal directions. Pile in, lay down, stack the whole team together, and launch to a good start. Or fire a five-second time bomb. Your call.

Where does "about to enter the escape lobby with all of his friends, witnesses a plasma fire sparked, and welds the fire-locks shut on them" fall on this spectrum?

Shower, shave, zip up the Atmos jumpsuit, and put on my toolbelt. Then find some unnaturally gorgeous pink-haired broad and ask if she needs some pipe laid, because this shit is either a dream or there is no God.

Why, yes. That is a plausible reason for such a mission and its secrecy. Perhaps a habitable planet was detected sending radio waves or having its atmosphere carbonize from industrialization. Perhaps they decided there was no time to lose in heading off interstellar competition. And, perhaps, fear of civilian or political interference drove them to absolute secrecy; so much the ship's destination wasn't recorded and an accident invented. Maybe its still presumed floating in the Oort Cloud where it ran afoul of comet fragments, or as a manufactured conspiracy theory holds, an Earthling missile. Could explain why no one would send a message after it, and any messages intercepted, of course, would lack the needed authentication keys. I've limited time to go over this now, but would love to over the weekend. The specifics of the trip's duration aren't important, but relative time aboard needs to be about twenty years. Maybe it was a NSR or maybe it was fusion, but the real question is how far is it to [REDACTED]. That's what can be plugged into the equation. Or hand-wave the math, since I doubt anyone will run equations about special relativity while roleplaying. So far this has been effective.

Thank you, Bokaza, for moving to substantive criticism with the intention of moving to correcting faults. I appreciate the opportunity. ...is just as likely to be stuffed into lab then have his ass probed as he is to work for a corporation... My understanding of the lore is that Mars is a fractured mass of city-states and nations in the present era, yet part of the Sol Alliance. While I am unsure what constitutes citizenship in the Sol Alliance, being a human born on Earth or Mars would almost certainly amount to birthright citizenship, and all rights and privileges thereof. Much of the crew did spend time in a Nanotrasen medical facility, however, they were of little scientific interest. The major concerns were diseases or immune system deficiencies causing problems. It is unlikely, after all, that they are the first sub-warp ship to be "lapped", nor the last. ...that whoever sent him was probably self-aware enough to understand that they didn't own the gift of extreme foresight to assume that whatever they wanted the ship to do would not be relevant two centures later... That would depend, specifically, on what they were asked to do. Conducting gunboat diplomacy to open trade between Mars and Tau Ceti is one thing, but glassing a planet into post-atomic barbarism is a much more permanent mission. To military planners operating with the presumption of sub-light travel being insurmountable and hundred-year-missions being standard (much hard science fiction follows this theme), foresight is waived in favor of a commanding officer empowered to decide such things. Recall, 18th century wars could be declared, fought, and negotiated to peace between British and French officers as they wrangled over colonial lands months from diplomatic contact. this still leaves the issues of dates. Namely, your character started his journey after the invention of the warp drive. I don't know if you pulled the lore background from the Bay wiki (which is not ours), or ours (in which case I don't blame you since it's a clusterfuck), but this does not fit parameters of existing lore. I would ask for a fix if you really want to consider it a valid backstory. I did, originally, draw the dates from Bay12. Aurora has different histories and I intend to make them fit the parameters. If you could, lets discuss the earliest date for such an interstellar voyage to start. I am assuming the Zubrin drive worked out; its a nuclear-salt-water rocket that allows tremendous thrust and specific impulse and may well be our actual rocket to the near stars. On the other hand, while I might seem like an opressive autistic neckbeard, this fix would give you benifits of actually being able to use it on the station. It's a good backstory, one I've yet to see used on the server, and your character is literally a man from the past. I, while not representing the opinions of the lore staff, would definitely like to interact with your character. Imagine all the good stories about the good old days you can cook up. Of course, as long as it's kept within limits of reason. And I appreciate the compliment. So far roleplaying this character has brought wistful discussions of how he's never going home, misunderstandings from the severe cultural shifts, and his ever-prickly allergic reaction to Tajarans and xenophobic conditioning.

Ever start working as an atmospheric technician and find that all the pipes are at 301 kpa and you can't undo a connection anymore? I sure have. Its frustrating to waste all the time draining such pipes out, and not terribly realistic. After all, that pathetic little crescent wrench in an engineer's toolbelt isn't the two-handed swagger-stick a real Lord of Atmos carries. Introducing the pipe wrench; the Industrial Welder of wrenches. With a one-meter handle and two-handed grip mode, this hot-forged shaft and machined bit ensures powerful torque and traction on even the most stubborn, pressurized pipes up to 4,500 kpa. Beyond this, extra oomph will still open the offending pipe... and shatter it, releasing the contents of the pipe itself to the local tile. For example, a straight pipe is 70 liters internal volume. Removing it when over 4,500 kpa will subtract the appropriate moles from the pipe network and delete the pipe, then add the moles to the tile the pipe occupied. This may or may not have horrible unintended consequences, but should not create massive problems. 70 liters of burning plasma isn't that much in a 2500 liter floor tile, but it is enough to make it a bad idea. Downsides, beyond being an idiot, include the bit not connecting with standard connections and bolts. It is only useful on pipes. Furthermore it requires both hands to operate. Pipe wrenches spawn in Atmospherics in the atmospheric lockers, and in the Chief Engineer's locker. A final downside? Two-handed meter-long solid steel clubs cause rather nasty blunt force injuries and broken bones in incidents of workplace violence. Wear a hardhat!

Joe Grief, Toxins Researcher, gets a universal pipe adapter and connects waste to distribution, or connects a vent to the waste pipes. Joe Grief, Toxins Researcher then asks Atmospherics for a can of plasma. Atmos Bob puts plasma in the yellow line, pumps it to the grey line, connects the canister to the grey line, and fills the canister. He disconnects the canister and closes off the yellow line, then pumps the grey line to the purple line. By default, the purple line is connected directly to waste. Plasma is now in waste. By Joe Grief, plasma is now in distribution. Joe Grief, or Jim Innocent, cause a room to drop below 101kpa. The vents turn on. Plasma is now in the station. This is but one contingency, a worst-case. More commonly pressure rises in the waste line above what you can adjust pipes at and repairs are hindered elsewhere. Installing a back-flow valve prevents this from happening. A 15 kilowatt pump is not strictly required, although an option. It does draw power faster, but requires power. With AI cooperation, I have just proven pressure regulators operate without power. You just can't adjust them. In either case, a back-flow valve or a pump is needed to prevent atmospherics from polluting a pipe network accessed across the station. So I install one.

//Calculates the APPROXIMATE amount of moles that would need to be transferred to bring source and sink to the same pressure /proc/calculate_equalize_moles(datum/gas_mixture/source, datum/gas_mixture/sink) if(source.temperature == 0) return 0 //Make the approximation that the sink temperature is unchanged after transferring gas var/source_volume = source.volume * source.group_multiplier var/sink_volume = sink.volume * sink.group_multiplier var/source_pressure = source.return_pressure() var/sink_pressure = sink.return_pressure() return (source_pressure - sink_pressure)/(R_IDEAL_GAS_EQUATION * (source.temperature/source_volume + sink.temperature/sink_volume)) I politely beg to differ.

There is no, "well sir it was my underling's idea". Complete. A Chief Engineer, and indeed any good leader, is responsible for all that his team does or fails to do. If this means that he orders a thing be done his way rather than a proposed way, it is because the subordinate proposing the change is not responsible if the new way fails; the Chief Engineer is responsible. It isn't a simple give-and-take of compromise when one party isn't responsible for a failed idea. The weight is on his shoulders to make certain everything works, and if something fails terribly, the burden of the hard jobs is on him as well. Additionally pressure regulators can be set to not regulate, in which case they are a backflow check valve. This is what I use them on the scrubber lines for up by the gas heater and cooler. If you're referring to the portable connector ports, those need to be a high volume pump because it fights a pressure gradient. There has been one atmospheric tech who joins late, tears up what I established and spews profanity and abuse over the radio to the degree of lying to new players that I'm an idiot who opens plasma canisters. Oliver Stefan, was it? Yes, Manfred would have a god complex and be impossible to work with when treated like shit. This sickens me and I won't go into it further.

I've been on here for months. Manfred is not the personification of me, nor behaves anything like how I behave at my job, nor around women, nor do I share his vices. You don't know me to make the assumption he was written as a personification, but you only know me as Manfred. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but there is only one anatomy of a cat. I know the anatomy and that's what I demonstrate to anyone willing to listen in-character. The trouble people often aren't, become aggressive over it, and then report that Manfred doesn't know anything. You can't put credibility on that. From what you've seen, I know one way to make it work. From what I can demonstrate if you wished to listen, I know why it works, how I've optimized it, what reasoning is behind every element, and why I do things differently than many others. It is not a question of turning on valves, it is a question of understanding the ideal gas laws and manipulating volume, temperature and pressure. Most atmos techs don't think beyond kilopascals and percents; I think in moles. Regarding other engineering tasks, Manfred doesn't enjoy fine electronics or computers. He could, of course. He could know everything on the wiki and then some. But I prefer to have a field that my character doesn't know so he's forced to delegate (or at least gripe). This is another way we're different. But that's an aside. Regarding taking orders: one principle of leadership is that in order to be respected by your subordinates, you have to respect your subordinates. I understand that and Manfred understands that. A number of Chief Engineers have shown him respect, and he obeys them. Another number do not understand this principle of leadership. If Mytz or Aquila were Chief Engineer and gave Manfred an order, he would pursue it with vigor. If Oliver Roadman (all good characters have a rival) gave an order, there might be some thought, but Manfred at least respects Roadman's abilities. They can work together if they keep professional courtesy. A Chief who turns a blind eye to a friend assaulting Manfred with sharp objects while they're in pressure suits and a depressurized room does not get his respect and obedience for the round. Roleplaying this kind of character can step on toes, but being insulted and lied about in-character has to be met with in-character responses. Don't kick a man and then call him violent for kicking back. As has been said, this isn't a popularity contest. Showing how likeable the player is seems secondary to demonstrating the ability to draw other characters into a roleplaying scene and understand the job being requested. Callabaddie attests I can draw others into roleplay. Tainavaa attests I know the most sophisticated element of the job. Is their word in doubt here?

First, I would ask if you think Tajarans are cats. Second, I would ask if you think being robust is important. Third, I would ask if this is serious.

As for player ability to lead, at fear of sounding like a copy-paste Navy Seal, I won't go further than saying I've run a number of roleplaying guilds in the past, one of which being a real pillar on an MMO's server. I lost the time for it, sadly.

You have not seen him with the opportunity to lead, or assume the attitude he assumes when leading. He did, however, lead his nuke ops team with patience and an overwhelming attempt to help the poor new guy. If you want to assess his leadership abilities, watch how he responds when told to take charge of a problem. Mytz has worked under him in this respect exceedingly well.

First, I do not play Security. The RnG put me in the security role for a single round last night. I declined an offer to respawn deciding to play it out for a change of pace. I see now that I should have done so. His age is not unusual. A 42 year old Chief Engineer is not uncommon with ability. Twenty years is enough time to rise in the ranks, particularly having started in an old-world apprenticeship. Second, "taking more time in Engineering roles". I have played an Atmos Tech or Engineer or Chief Engineer for multiple years now across multiple servers, and being a Station Engineer isn't a job I usually take. Engineers appear to be much more common than atmospheric techs, and atmospherics is perhaps the most complicated and critical system on the station. I have worked where I can do the most good, and engage in "Engineering" work when Chief or a Tech. But this seems beside the point. Being a a Chief Engineer for two years following the loss of his senior, it is unlikely Nanotrasen would ask him to prove his abilities afresh. There might be tests, or letters of recommendation from his old crewmates, but in character, I don't understand the reasoning. Individual characters not seeing his abilities is the result of how a round progressed. You can find other Chief Engineers who would endorse me. So far as a lack of Chief Engineers, yes. There is no chief engineer this round and there tends not to be. I want to fill the role, same as anyone else who asks for a whitelist. I have played hundreds of hours as a Chief Engineer on supermatter collector, supermatter TEG, and singularity engine stations. I have constructed TEGs from scratch, built new rooms, flag them as areas with the blueprints, powered and lit them with airlock permissions and atmospheric connections. I have constructed houses on the mining outpost with self-contained airlocks. I have installed remote door bolts for Security lobbies. I have even devised and implemented a self-governing supermatter TEG arrangement that bleeds excess pressure on the hot line into the waste radiators to lower the injected gas temperature and automatically regulate a supermatter's power output. You ask if I can manage to rig an atmospherics network, I've done so and taught a current Chief Engineer the finer points of atmospherics before she became a Chief Engineer. You say I should apply for Head of Security, this is based on a misunderstanding of my character brought about by only one round as evidence. I cannot agree. If you think I am more likely to pass for a Head of Security than a Chief Engineer, then I do not think your understanding of my character is accurate at all. Witt, his employment record was in the middle of being re-written into a psychologist's approval-to-hire letter when the round ended and I lost my work after an hour.

BYOND key: Nikov Character names: Manfred Hayden How long have you been playing on Aurora?: I began playing on Aurora in June or July of this year. I have played SS13 since Baystation was created by the Bay12 community. Over time I have tempered and developed my play style to progressively more serious roleplaying servers, although I have been a heavy roleplayer on other media for over a decade. Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: Manfred Hayden has, on other servers, won praise as a Chief Engineer for several years now. As there is a lack of Chief Engineers, and Manfred has developed into the role so much over time, I wish to offer his services in this capacity. Why did you come to Aurora?: Recent history only. After TG's low-roleplay began to bore me and servers like Hypatia and BestRP/UnboundTravels (their Starbound community was first-class)/Aphelion deteriorated for their own reasons, I began playing on Aurora. I found everything agreeable and suiting my tastes save the whitelist applications, which sent me briefly to Aphelion while that lasted. I am now returning and see the need to put Manfred in his customary job. Have you read the BS12 wiki on the head roles you plan on playing?: Yes. I even wrote an in-game book that was added to the HoP's guide. I was a Head of Personnel and Captain from time to time back then, and may resume those roles after building a character up to it. It may still be in the databases somewhere with my pen to it, written in-character while sitting at the ID computer. Manfred since retreated to Engineering almost exclusively. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: Roleplaying is assuming the personality, motivation, knowledge and flaws of a character and engaging in a collaborative storywriting experience with other roleplayers. I say storywriting because in SS13, in particular, I've found every great round is like a good science-fiction short story. There were things you did and people you spoke to, objects you noticed and bits of information you learned, that finally aligned in the final moments of terror like tumblers in a lock, opening some great experience. As you have requested a paragraph I am obliged to keep this brief, however the following was posted by myself on another server and describes my unvarnished point of view on roleplaying characters and their responsibility to the shared story. It isn't precisely topical to this server, but I think it is pretty damn telling. What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: The OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is to provide a safeguard, a fallback and an example. As a safeguard, good heads of staff recognize powergaming or metagaming by their subordinates and attempt to reduce its damage in-character. For example, the Head of Security might notice his officers jumping to conclusions about the round type based on metagame information and then strive to downplay that information, both subtly reprimanding a metagamer and encouraging others to engage in better play. As a fallback, a head of staff covers for holes in his department's staffing to ensure the station as a whole can continue to function. For example, a chief engineer with only engineers will set up atmospherics. No station would start its shift without someone to manage the air supply, and the fallback covers for this OOC error. As an example, heads of staff interact frequently with subordinates while in a position of power and need to be dutiful leaders, encouraging a high standard of play through their own actions. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: A whitelisted player must play to a higher standard to maintain the respect of those not so privileged, both in actual roleplaying and obedience to the rules. They need to be guides to new players in the community and provide stability to the community. I will work to these ends, and in particular, enjoy taking in new Engineers and teaching them the game mechanics while in-character, making it a simultaneous example of roleplaying. Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions. Character name: Manfred Hayden Character age: 42 Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs): A native-born Martian, Hayden grew up inside a Thyssen-Krupp hematite mine. Learning technical skills as an apprentice mine electrician at the young age of twelve, by maturity Manfred had developed a practical knowledge of mine operations that put him in supervisor positions over newly arrived Earth college graduates, whos' degrees and classroom learning cost more than a few lives in the unpleasant and imperfect conditions of Mars' tunnel complexes. After catching a few executive's eyes (precisely why being a secret he is not privy to), he began to be groomed for bigger and better things with formal management training and the tacit goal of creating a "bootstraps" success story to manage the often troubled mine labor force. His career with Thyssen-Krupp came to an abrupt end following strikes and violence that spread across Mars in his mid-twenties. Hayden had been the protégé of one of the executives implicated in the scandal, although he personally attests no fault in the matter. Technically trained but lacking prospects within Thyssen-Krupp, Hayden enlisted in the Martian Espatier Corps and was quickly placed into the Engineering department. Following two one-year orbital tours aboard a cruiser, then-Corporal Hayden had spent thousands of off-watch hours learning other roles aboard the ship and expanding his education into the neglected liberal arts. His broad understanding of ship's systems and formal management training made him Chief Engineer's Mate, 1st Class for the M.E.C.'s most infamous vessel; the MES - Scharnhorst. The Scharnhorst was one of humanity's first interstellar warships. Accordingly it was also sub-luminal. Following orders which remain classified, the Scharnhorst began her burn, accelerated to a sizable fraction of the speed of light, and began her deceleration centuries later. Aboard the Scharnhorst, only twenty years passed; outside much of the Second Space Age slipped away to special relativity. Hayden managed the ship's elaborate maintenance schedule, learned from his superior, argued mess-hall theology and read the Western canon for two decades. By the time the Scharnhorst reached her destination and slipped into a high polar orbit above her target world, humanity had achieved the superluminal Bluespace drive and very surprised, yet human, ships were over the planet. What occurred at that time remains a Nanotrasen secret, but Manfred Hayden soon found himself without a career in a naval force which had been dissolved generations prior. As the product of nearly thirty years of continuous on-the-job training, and having superseded his superior officer to serve as Chief Engineer during the final years of the cruise, Hayden was quickly picked up by Nanotrasen along with many of his crewmates. He has not, however, fully adjusted to life outside of the strange sub-culture which fermented on his ship for twenty years, nor was that life kind to him. The nuclear salt-water drive that pushed him across the stars inflicted radiological cancer upon his superior and mentor aboard the Scharnhorst before wracking Manfred as well, and he was compelled to sign into Nanotrasen's payroll for the promise of full medical services. What do you like about this character?: I like his, apparent, mastery of his field. Manfred knows everything about Atmospherics and most anything about the rest of the engineering bay, which is appealing to me. He was an engineer before I even considered my current career (systems engineer) and occasionally I "what would Manfred do" when its -14 Fahrenheit and I need to test something on an engine in an outdoor lot, or wrangling the plumbing in my basement with a twelve-pound thread cutter. The answer is grit my teeth and get it done. I like his bold, assertive character. He was first drafted up when I was a much younger man and aged ahead of me, and in an odd way became an inspirational figure from my own fiction. I'm going to shut up now because I sound psychotic to myself. What do you dislike about this character?: I dislike the ways in which he is a broken man. He never had the things I took for granted and can never gain the things I love. He has no country, no family, no wife, no children. He is as an Athenian driven from Athens in the Persian war. He had a ship and his oar to row, and pulled for those beside him in the trireme. But now any glories he wins will be forgotten, his body unburied, his death unwept for. He is something that I would fear to be, in spite of how successful he might appear to be. He is a tragic hero putting himself together after the third act has dismissed him, and I think that makes him a powerful character to play. Often times I would want to interact with someone in a way I can't with Hayden because of his nature. He tends to offend people I would rather not offend, but I cannot help it. Take Katelynn McMullen. I would like roleplay with that character but Manfred has fouled things up so completely IA directed her not to talk to him after she feigned suicide in front of him and boiled up some bad memories of his Chief Engineer doing the same when tormented in his death agonies. He can forgive her for ignorance, but is setting himself up to be hurt further. It would be interesting for Manfred to become a Head of Staff, actually, since they'd be pushed together. What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Manfred's specific training and education provides the job requirements, but being a head of staff is as much interpersonal as understanding the game mechanics in one's department. Manfred has created interesting roleplay for his subordinates for many years now. Sometimes he simply enforces a hardhat policy, other times he calls the entire department into his office for pay distribution (making them sign a paper denouncing the suspected revolution, on one occasion), and other times he slaps his hands together, calls a few engineering interns into a room, and goes through a depressurization-and-you orientation. The HoP didn't like that one, but damn it, that intern cracking in a perfectly safe environment would have died in an actual hazard. And that's how he is; very hard, very practical, very much a career Navy man and a Chief Engineer. He is concerned about his subordinates' feelings plenty, but won't hesitate to remove, kindly or unkindly, someone who can't do the job and won't stand to be trained. Some of his traits as a subordinate shift when he becomes a leader. He himself puts on a mask for the leadership role, somewhat tempering his personality in response to his higher responsibilities. This is an element of his formal training. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions. How would you rate your own roleplaying?: My roleplaying is the product of well over a decade of practice. Specifically in SS13 I could stand to improve my non-verbal presence, as I often rely on in-game actions and not emotes as much as I do in other media. However I do not often hear complaints, and do often hear praise, from other players. In particular I have earned some high praise recently as an antagonist for pulling my victims in and along, rather than the more prudent course of destroying them. I am not infallible but certainly wish to be as good as I can be and made a mistake or two when I first joined the server, but have since felt out the environment and play accordingly. Extra notes: Manfred's background story may raise eyebrows but should not raise issues. It deliberately weaves into Aurora's lore somewhat loosely, as he has existed across a great many SS13 servers. I make it a point not to give dates or specifics during an in-character conversation in order to keep things fluid enough to mesh with whoever I am speaking with, and even passed Hypatia's rather strict inspection. Specific dates can float easily and special relativity is a universal constant. Manfred's tragedy of sailing to a forgotten and unneeded war shapes the character, however, and plays into a classic science fiction convention of sub-light travel. Halderman's The Forever War was a major inspiration for this element. Lastly, his military background is in a form of space navy as an engineer.