ChevalierMalFet

I triple-scoured the wiki, but couldn't find any answers to my questions, so I thought I would ask a trenchant question here on the forum. 1. How do Vaurca reckon age, if they even do? A Bound Vaurca might be less than a year old; an Unbound Vaurca might be a thousand or more - some or all of which they might have lived in the Virtual Realm, where time flows at a different rate than ours. 2. How do Vaurca qualifications work? Since they were only contacted two years ago, all their qualifications would come from holding jobs in their own hives. What sort of positions might they have held, which are transferable to working on the Aurora?

Sarad Amrapurkar, superstar!

BYOND Key: ChevalierMalFet Character Names: Sarad Amrapurkar, Calonice deNomikos, Chen Yiwei, Chadrakhar Gokhale, Subhash Gokhale Species you are applying to play: Vaurca What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Black, black as night Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: I have. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question Why do you wish to play this specific race: Since my youth, I have been fascinated by myrmecology - the study of ants. Eusocial hive-creatures, like ants, bees, and termites, have always filled me with wonder, along with the strange amalgam intelligence that they embody. This is my first species whitelist, and I think that starting with something I know best (I know a great deal about ants) is better than something more alien. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Well, playing a Bound one is, according to the wiki, very similar to playing a cyborg - they are essentially organic machines. Also interesting to me is the idea of dealing with discrimination; in general, I find myself leaning more towards playing "officer-class" characters, and being a down-trodden Vaurca would provide me with a fresh perspective. (If I may draw by way of comparison, a long time ago, I was involved with playing Vampire: the Requiem online; there was a general understanding that a person would play as one vampire, to prey on mortals, and one or more mortals, to be preyed on by the vampires. Playing the former without the latter was seen as poor sportsmanship. I see it as the same principle.) Finally, the idea of being a kind of "splinter" of a hive-mind - having memories of being a part of the grand, Protean We - it seems very sad and poetic. Character Name: Ka'akaix'zishik Zo'ra. Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs The Virtual Realm provides infinite pleasures and opportunities for creation; it is a universe unto itself, completely free of the limitations of flesh. Therein arose Zishik, the Thinker; in the cathedrals of light, he established first principles of truth and of beauty and of goodness. The interrelation between entities in the Realm is impossible for the written word to convey; it is enough to say that in their Protean Intelligence, there came a demand for one to voyage into the This-World and see what it held, to see if the elegant structures of thought they had developed there could exist outside. Thus were generated five bodies, and in them were poured five intellects - Zishik among the brave philosopher-astronoughts that would penetrate into the This-World and see if its rude matter could support their spiritual creations. Others went into schools and lyceums, to interact with the greatest academics of Humanity. Zishik, however, chose to go not high but low, to see, as he put it, the dreams of extremis, the thoughts of those at the precipice of death. Armed with medical knowledge he gained from within the Virtual, he flowed on the waves of affairs as a doctor and ended up working on the Aurora. What do you like about this character? Zishik is sensitive and thoughtful; he puts tremendous energy into thinking about why he and others do the things that they do. He also possesses compassion and charity, placing himself beside the sick and the dead in order to aid them - even if it is ultimately for his own purposes. Medicine is what he does, but philosophy is what he /is,/ and he carries that attitude with him wherever he goes. How would you rate your role-playing ability? 9 out of 10. I'm quite good at what I do, I think. Notes: N/A.

Can apprentices use the shuttle? I sincerely have no idea.

An anonymous question, though surely the website's administrators could find out who it was. "Why did you set the camera to start before you entered the room? Did you want us to see the stuff behind you?" Another question pops up. "Which do you think is more important - enforcing internal order or defending from outside threats?" The same source reveals another question. "Do you think you have an obligation to die, in order to save someone else's life? What if it's not security related?"

That's a true point, but then again still - unless we are rationing the air, or unless it's from a game balance perspective, why /not/ have them start at full?

With regards to point 2, that's certainly true - it takes a long time to go through 1013 of oxygen and i do yes mean quite a long time. Simultaneously though, if you have a free minute, there's no real reason -not- to do it, nor any downside to having all that air except for a hypothetical scarcity that never materializes. Unless they are purposefully being left half full, there's no reason to have them less than full. As for number three, I see your point - though I confess I've never been in a round with neither ai nor ce, but then again there's nothing impossible about it - but even with that proviso, plasma should be in the engine area, in keeping with its status as the very precious shit that justifies our salaries. My mantra is as such - if any of it should be in secure storage, then all of it should be. On that note, I also think that the tank dispenser in atmo should also be behind a few more doors, perhaps in the same room as the pipe dispenser. But your comments are certainly appreciated. Ah! As I post, I see a new post made. Now, this hinges on something I haven't tested yet, the onus never taking root, but isn't the captain or hop also authorized to get the tools out of the vending machine? (I wager that only these two fine gentles might have the hypothetical experience to start the engine, outside the department - we in ooc can go to the fine bay station wiki and follow one two three, but IC it's a very complicated process requiring a four year apprenticeship. ) in any case, it strikes me as somewhat slovenly - either the tools are waiting for you at the fixed site as a policy matter, or you bring them with you. If the wrench is waiting for you at the Pa, then wire coils and cutters should await you at the solars. As for the antags, that's malege speed. If the goal is for the antag to get a multitool or radio - the rest there is all worthless - then I'd put them at some other place. As it stands, they get collected - well, I collect the multitool, the rest get mulched - within fifteen minutes. If someone has actually collected the multi or radio from the singularity zone, and used it for antagonisms variegated, I'll retract the point - but here is a mind boggled by the notion. And a third appears, jizo kshitigarbha. I agree with you that this camaraderie is precious, but in the overall survey, I don't see how these changes would affect the dynamic of startup except, possibly, queueing up to fill your oxygen - which startup doesn't have to do because the tanks come with over an hour of air. I like filling plasma tanks as a startup element, which is why I'd have them - all of then - start empty.

I would welcome feedback on any of my characters, particularly Sarad Amrapurkar, Subash Gokhale, and captain Patel (his first name escapes me at the moment.) I would be happy to give it as well , but alas, no keyboard.

BYOND Key: ChevalierMalFet Character name:.Sarad Amrapurkar Item name:.Sarad's screwdriver Why is your character carrying said item to work? He needs a screwdriver as part of his ordinary kit, and I think it would be cute if he had one as a father's day gift rather than a mug or something - every time he uses it, he can remember his kids. Item function(s): it functions purely as a normal screwdriver, with no advantages. Item description: Jagatila sarvottama vadila. (This is "the world's best father " in Marathi, his native tongue.) Item appearance: the orange screwdriver. No graphical changes. Additional comments: it brings a small yet real joy to my life when I get the orange screwdriver in my kit, as orange is my favorite color.

My primary character is Sarad Amrapurkar, and while playing as him, I have noticed a great deal of things i do at round start, or see others do, as a matter of course. As such, i have a few small ideas on what sort of procedures might be implemented to get us going. My suggestions are small, but I think they will create great convenience for those affected at very minimal cost. Please excuse any rough diction; I am currently on a Thai beach and have no access to a real keyboard. I will be back on the 11th. 1 - station engineers and chief engineers, ie those with access to insulated gloves, should start the round already wearing them. Saves the trip to pick them up. The chief, also, should either begin the round with an industrial welding tool or else have one in the locker. 2 - big blue oxygen tanks, of the kind you get from dispensers, should either start empty or start at 1013. Everyone I see fills them up to 1013 whenever they have a convenient moment. 3 - plasma tanks should also start either empty or full, with empty being my preference. At the very least, the hardsuit storage / dressing room tank dispenser should either dispense empties or should dispense no plasma tanks at all. 4 - get rid of the derelict tools in the singularity area. Other than the free multitool, which I grab sometimes, everything else out there is a waste. In fact, get rid of derelict tools in the engine area generally. 5 - Poly should stop being able to grab things. I appreciate the comedy of having him yell at us, but whenever I'm the chief and he snatches things out of my hand, it's a total drag. 6 - This may be beyond the scope of such suggestions, but possibly a way to toggle tools between 'tool' and 'weapon' modes, or to have tools work only as weapons in the harm intent and only as tools in all other intents. If I want to whoop ass, I don't want to accidentally remove a floor tile; conversely, and as is the more likely scenario, I don't want to be fixing the floor and accidentally break someone's jaw. 7 - one final thing. If memory serves, the universal constructor holds 30 dollops of ammunition, and 50 dollops - in five sets of 10 - are in the chief's office. Purely for microscopic convenience, I'd ask for there to be two clips instead of five, with 30 dollops - a full load - in each. These changes are all small and irksome, I know, but I think they are all unambiguously positive, and simply reflect the automatic round-start equipages of every engineer. I await your comments, if any.

If they're all about universalism, why are all of their leaders Slavs? Shouldn't they have a broader cross section of people in their ranks?

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): "Faction." The Panchamayanis are a small ethno-religious group scattered across human space, descended from India's "untouchable" caste and from B. R. Ambedkar's early 20th-century Dalit Buddhist movement among the same. Founding/Settlement Date (if applicable): Ambedkar's movement began in 1956, when he called for the untouchables of India to abandon Hinduism (which he saw as reinforcing the caste system) in favor of a new Buddhist movement stripped of mysticism and focusing on social justice. The movement was first called "Panchamayana" (the theological "vehicle" of the Panchamas, the untouchable caste) in 2016, and the name came into real currency among these people (who emigrated into the stars with the same frequency as anybody else) in 2147, with the publication of a magazine called Panchamayana. Region of Space: Panchamayanis do not own any planets, but they can be found anywhere humans live - except, oddly enough, on Sol, where the Ambedkerites who remained in India do not generally identify themselves with their cousins who ventured abroad. (If they did, there would be three times as many of them, and Mumbai would be their undisputed capital.) The largest Panchamayani communities are on Biesel and Mars, but they can be found practically everywhere that hasn't made a specific policy of excluding them. Controlled by (if not a faction): About 75% of Panchamayanis live in the Sol Alliance, with 20% living in Tau Ceti. The remaining 5% have ventured even further afield. Other Snapshot information: The Panchayamanis are, if one may, similar to the Jews - they are a small group of people, with no nation of their own, who are connected by shared traditions, culture, and religion, and are dedicated to maintaining their links with one another despite their physical distance. They take strong efforts to make sure that their children learn their history, practice their religion, speak their sacred Pali language, and marry within the group. Long Description: The Panchamayanis (the 's' at the end is optional when referring to a group of them) are the descendants of a very specific time and place - they trace a strong lineage to the Dalit untouchables of Maharashtra, India, who took up B. R. Ambedkar's 1956 call to abandon Hinduism and embrace the Buddhist religion as part of an anti-caste social justice movement. Isolated from the rest of India by caste status, isolated from the rest of their caste by their religion, and isolated from the rest of their religion by their refusal to participate in "the culture of superstition," the Dalit Buddhists walled themselves off as much as their could, and formed a tight-knit, insular culture. Many of them moved to Mumbai, one of the emerging Indian hyper-cities, and lived together in ghettos. Some of them got involved in the nascent Mumbai-centric Indian film industry, known to the world as "Bollywood," and got startlingly rich because of it. When humanity surged into the stars at the end of the 21st century, the people of India - including these Ambedkerites, who had carved a niche for themselves in the mega-city of Mumbai - proudly took a place among them. The Ambedkerites had an advantage in this field - they had no holy places or ancient homelands, and as a people they were willing to pack up and move to any place that promised opportunities. While they were never what you call a massive force - even if they were 20 times over-represented among space colonists, they only numbered at eight and a half million people total - they were still quick to go anywhere and everywhere. In 2147, an author named Madhur Bhave (who had quite an interesting life story, trying and failing at some 15 other professions before he took up publishing) began publishing his magazine on Mars. His dream was that Panchayamana would serve as a kind of village gossip circle, trading in everything from holy sermons by the most venerable monks to things as mundane as recipes and wedding announcements. The magazine eventually stood on its own merits among the 25,000 strong Martian Ambedkerite community, but that wasn't enough for Bhave - he paid printers and distributors on every settled planet, however small, to carry his magazine even if nobody bought it. If and when his people arrived there, Panchayamana was waiting for them. Panchayamana wasn't the best - it's hard to read the unbridled earnestness of the first editions and not cringe a little - but it was the first, and it laid down a metaphorical road upon which later, more polished efforts could tread. Because of his work, the Ambedkerites of Mars began to think of themselves as Panchayamanis, as people different from their cousins on Earth, and Ambedkerites who spread even further would identify themselves with the Martian community. Bhave also encouraged his people to spread themselves across the galaxy, promising them that a nation based on proximity of ideas was better and more durable than one based on proximity of houses. (To be fair, they were doing that anyway - he just used his pulpit to approve of it.) Today, there are some 23 million Panchayamanis. Wherever they are, their culture is startlingly uniform - they eat the same food, practice the same religion, and observe the same culture. They are also notoriously tight-knit and clannish; they wall themselves off into insular communities, connected to one another but not to the people next door to them. They prize hard work, education, and parsimony - indeed, they practically boast about how cheaply they can live and how great they are at bargain-hunting. They have the sacred Pali language, which every Panchi (for short) studies from infancy and can use to communicate (haltingly) with every other Panchi. Their Buddhist religion - Theravada-style, stripped of ancestor worship, spirits of the Earth, or angelic Bodhisattvas - is essential to them, and as a rite of passage every young person spends a season as a monk as the final step to adulthood. They keep up a spirit of egalitarianism as reflects their roots as the poorest of the poor, even though their income distribution is the same as anyone else's. They live in extended, multi-generational families that spread out like rabbit warrens, and children roam back and forth between their 'aunts' and 'uncles.' And, perhaps most importantly, they are endogamous. A young person might voyage to another planet a spouse there, but that spouse must come from that planet's Panchi community, and they must raise their children in their religion. People who marry out are struck from the rolls and never mentioned again. (Note: The first paragraph in the Long Description is actually true, in real life.)

I did Killer's test and got a 14 for Sarad Amrapurkar, 12 of which is because he has the same opinions as me. I'm satisfied.

This is a simple one, and essentially a factual one. Does NanoTrasen have any other stations of more-or-less the same 'class' as the Aurora, engaged in more-or-less the same kind of work but in another location? If so, how many, and what (if there are only a few) are their names? Are there perhaps twelve others?

Well, can you tell us about an IPC that you'd play as?

So... What happens now? How many more +1s do I need?

Oh, I know. I'm just signifying that I have no intent to run off and start playing a captain right away.

BYOND key: ChevalierMalFet Character names: Sarad Amrapurkar, Calonice deNomikos, Chen Yiwei How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Around two weeks, I'd say? Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I feel that I would do good as a head, I would enjoy doing it, and that it makes sense for my character. Why did you come to Aurora?: Jackboot is a good personal friend of mine, and he talked up both SS13 the game and Aurora the server. Have you read the BS12 wiki on the head roles you plan on playing?: I have, many times. 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: Roleplay is the act of taking control of a character, understanding their motivations, and guiding them through situations - particularly those involving their values, their beliefs, and their interactions with other people. It is the art and science of embodying a person with verisimilitude, in such a way that an observer might think, "this is a real person." It is, in short, the art of recreational impersonation as a means of exploring one's own values, beliefs, and interactions. In this context, roleplaying should be about taking something as flat and static as an on-board profession and imbuing it with nuance and personality, such that other players enjoy interacting with that character and have memorable experiences with it. It's doing one's part to maintain a harmonious circle of "real people." What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: The OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is fundamentally three-fold. Their most obvious job is to cover any shortfalls that may occur in a given round's roster - for an example I've seen constantly, a Chief Medical Officer can give the Medical staff access to chemistry if there's no chemist on duty without breaking a window or hacking the door. In this specific case, a Chief Engineer has access to Atmospherics and can facilitate that part of the station in the event that nobody has chosen to play as one. The second purpose is to serve as a veritable font of wisdom. SS13 is a game of complicated systems; doing a job well requires real training and understanding. A Head of Staff who is competent in their duties is a ready mentor for new players who are still learning the ropes. This makes IC as well as OOC sense as well, of course, since heads of staff would be in charge of training new employees. The third and final purpose is to facilitate characters, and by extension players, in thinking of themselves as a "team." It's very common for Engineers to sort of 'glide past' one another once the engine is started up, kiting off to do their own thing and haphazardly negotiating with each other whenever an emergency arises. By breaking large tasks down into smaller ones and splitting them up, a good Head of Staff can get the players feeling invested in one another's success, leading to a more satisfying state of play overall. In fact, one of the refrains I would return to often as Chief Engineer is the idea that Engineers are or should be unionized, with all that entails. What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: Whitelisted players have to be exemplars; they have to essentially be the ideal player. A whitelist is a symbol of trust, and players who possess them should always serve to embody that trust. It's actually really simple - be good at your chosen duties, always follow the rules, or eat your humble pie when you break them, always strive to get along with other players, and be the bigger person if necessary. Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions. Character name: Sarad Amrapurkar Character age: 51 Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs): Sarad Amrapurkar was born on New Gibson (TCet e) on the 17th of September, 2406. His parents (Sachin and Lata Amrapurkar) were the owners and proprietors of a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a massive industrial shipyard, and from an early age Sarad (second of two sons, with one sister) dreamed of getting off his factory hell-hole planet and one day seeing the stars. The restaurant couldn't support two sons, so once he finished as much schooling as he thought he'd need, he signed up as a deck hand for NanoTrasen shipping in 2424. Advancement was achingly slow, but Sarad had perseverance. In 2427, he became a mechanic's assistant; in 2432, a certified shipboard electrician; in 2437, he became an engineer's assistant and in 2440 an engineer in his own right. In 2445, he added an atmospheric certification because it opened the way to better pay. In 2450, he finally attained, through sweat and hard work and on-the-job training, the highest enlisted rank in NanoTrasen Merchant Astry, a task that involved completing a graduate dissertation (which he did, barely, in his first experience in the world of higher academia). In 2453 finally transferred to station work for the promise of better pay and more reasonable hours - the better to spend time with his new family. Through all his years of work, Sarad has never forgotten his roots, and has always considered himself a friend of the working man against the depredations of the managerial class. He has been heavily involved in both mentorship of younger engineers and in union politics; indeed, his advancement has been halted at several turns by his occasionally hostile relationship with management. He cares deeply about the well-being of the people he manages, and at the same time he cared deeply about being good at his job and ensuring his job is done well. Sarad has a wife, whom he married comparatively late in life - she was 43 when they married in '51 - and by the blessings of modern medicine, they have a son and a daughter. His wife's name is Anjali, and his children are Madhav and Madhuri. He has finally acquired that which he most despises - middle-class respectability. Due to his long shifts far from home, his relationship with his family is somewhat estranged, though it's better than it would have been if he were still out for months at a time like when he worked on ships. What do you like about this character?: Jeez, he's like someone out of a Bruce Springsteen song - a hard-working, blue-collar hero of the old school. He is loyal to his friends, true to his word, listens before he speaks, he leads by example, and he pays respect to others and demands it from them in turn. In fact, that last thing - the fact that he "sticks to his guns" when it comes to his and his people's well-being - is the thing I like most about him. What do you dislike about this character?: Having finished school at 16 and started work at 17, Sarad has a definite anti-intellectual bias; he thinks that the school of hard knocks is better than any university. He is resentful of education, especially when someone actually knows better than he does as a product of that education. Also, he generally has a poor opinion of aliens - especially Tajara, whom he considers indecent gutter-people - and this is made worse by the fact that he can, in fact, come to respect them as individuals if they eschew their alien-ness and start acting like, well, humans. What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Experience, skill, and temperament. If one were to dream up an ideal Chief Engineer, it would probably look something like this. Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions. How would you rate your own roleplaying?: 8/10. I have a tendancy sometimes to segregate a given round into "roleplaying time" and "get serious time," and during the latter, all of my characters coalesce into one - a sort of very grim, determined character who's ready for action. I freely admit that this is probably driven by a hunger for something bold after an hour and a half of wiring solars. Nevertheless, I've been playing D&D&c for 15 years and I think my roleplaying performance is generally above-par. Extra notes: - I inserted that bit about him mostly working on ships to give me an 'out' if I make a bone-headed mistake about something he should know; he can shrug his shoulders and say, "that's how it works on ships, sorry, old habits die hard." - At this time, the only head of staff I intend on playing is Chief Engineer. If, further down the line, I intend to create a character who could fill a different role, then I'll come back and re-apply with them, or something like that. - I respect the fact that I am probably jumping the gun on this one, but I wanted to submit anyway.

-1, obvious junk.