A Horrible Mistake - Ventii Seeks the Office

[Ventii]

BYOND key: Ventii

 

Character names: Wilhelm Sauer, Edwin Mossier. Others, but I'm keeping those close to my heart.

 

 

How long have you been playing on Aurora?:A little more than a year now.

 

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I don’t! Earnestly, I have zero interest in the whitelist. None. Zilch. The idea of playing command actually turns my stomach. That’s a level of stress and a standard I really don’t want to be held to on SS13.  

 

So, what gives?

 

I’m here exclusively for the Corporate Liaison role. I had a round a little while ago where I spawned in as a Rescue-Pod fellow which had the prompt of a businessman for Idris Incorporated. This happened to come with the Liaison role. After I had rescued myself in the most ridiculous fashion possible, I decided I’d give it a whirl.

 

As it turns out, it was one of the funniest rounds that I’ve played in a very long time, and so, here I am—Conditionally. The only reason I’m hazarding this app is because Yonnimer informed me I could do this without any intention of ever touching a real head of staff role.

 

If that advice was incorrect, I am so sorry for wasting your time and please inform me of that fact at your earliest convenience because I don’t want to take this any farther otherwise and waste both your time, and mine.

 

 

Why did you come to Aurora?:As part of the Ssethtide, unironically. Kind of. I have an RP background and I was really fascinated by the potential of the system, so I went searching and decided to check this place out to see if the RP was actually up to par.

 

It was.

 

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?:Oh boy, have I ever.

 

Have you received any administrative actions? And how serious were they? Not a one! The only thing I should have on my profile is a single note from the first day I came on when I stupidly spawned in with two middle initials. Dumb mistake, really.

 

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph each. Okay.

 

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about:

 

Christ, here’s a shower thought kind of topic, huh? You guys really reach deep.

Alright. Let’s dance.

Roleplay is the oldest form of theatre that we have on planet earth, coming at around the same time as prehistoric storytelling around the proverbial fire. It worked hand in hand with oral tradition, and is the process of both inventing, or embodying, a character. Roleplay and theatre are intertwined as topics, with one being a more formal embodiment of the other, but in earnest, Roleplay is a tool.

Roleplay connects us, allows us to explore facets of ourselves and others, it’s a tool to push past our own personal issues and barriers and attempt to connect as people via the paradoxical use of masks. We can use it to teach, to bring people out of traumatic experiences, or even to just mess around with friends. Every game you play, you are invariably roleplaying—Even something as minute as Mario has a role that, you the player, takes up in that minute alongside the metagame which consistently varies from person to person.

Textual Roleplay in a group environment is intoxicating, distressing, and one of the most important hobbies I’ve taken up.

It’s escapism. Plain and simple.

People often compare it to writing, but I believe that’s probably, the least important part. Writing is an imperfect medium; all communicative methods are without a single doubt. Take, say, natural speech—It’s conducted with immense inaccuracy, helped along by non-verbal cues, and consistently is told through a cultural lens whilst being filled with stops and stutters, and in that, we find immense abstraction in the way that we communicate. If something as rote and as everyday as speaking can be so entirely reliant on the person-to-person, how can roleplay be comparable, in earnest, to a solo-activity in which the minds of all involved are puppets on strings?

It can’t, I don’t think.

Talk with someone who roleplays in a Kingdom Hearts fandom group in strictly one-line l33tspeak and a person who consistently drops multi-paragraph soliloquys to a non-existent audience, you’ll find that both are equally satisfied and proud of their accomplishments even if we may view them differently from our perspective. There is no universal standard outside of the one we ascribe in our own environs—With, of course, some ground rules. Sounds an awful lot like something else, don’t you think?

Acting. Improvisation.

I view roleplay as an improvisational exercise at the base of it all. We expertly craft and finely hone a character with one philosophy or another of what makes them “great” to us and our own satisfaction, but it exists not for our own selves entirely, no… It’s for other people in a sandbox of our choosing, owned and operated by another person. We follow a standard. We follow rules. Within those constraints, we are allowed to interact, and via that interaction, we collectively experience one another and the magnificently dynamic stories that we can create—Secret or extended, in round or beyond it, we are in the business of making Masks and loving them as people.

If you need proof of this, I need only ask that you speak to any D&D player you know. Ask them about their campaign. Ask them about their character and the (mis)adventures that their party has been on. Regardless of the type of game, they’ll have a story. And, in that story, they’ll slip. Purposefully or not, they’ll talk about their character as if it was a legitimate person, because roleplay is real to you and I. In our recollections, these stories are just as real as anything else, and our mind’s eye is just as blind as our real ones when looking back at the past. The emotions are legitimate and that provides all the verisimilitude we need.

We are in the business of masking Masks and loving them as people.

 

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: Not entirely relevant for me, but the OOC purpose of a head of staff is to guide. In that role you, unlike anyone else on the station, has the single prime directive of driving the story forward. You are to ensure that the people “under” (I use that word very lightly) you are either learning, working, or otherwise having fun engaging, while balancing that with the metanarrative put forth by the various antagonists in each round.

In a sense, extended or not, each and every round is at least partially on your shoulders— A collective Megazord-esq Atlas, holding up the proverbial world-pillar of each fractious moment in time, each limb comprised of a different poor bastard lovely, self-sacrificing individual.

In more academic terms, to be a command member on the Aurora, you create a usual persona in which you interact with the semi-static improvisational environment while invariably tainting that character with meta-gaming (the traditional definition, not the RP naughty word), or strategy to allow for holes to be exploited and to be constantly cognizant of the Game aspect of Aurora’s brand of SS13.

 

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: Again, this doesn’t much apply where I’m going, but basically, it’s quite reflective of the former.

You become a guide.

Your goal, from that moment forward, every single time you touch a head of staff character, is to be a river to your people. You are obligated to provide an experience that is, at minimum, above the average. You can never be off, you can never have a bad day—To do that would be to have your whitelist jeopardized, one-hundred percent of the time. The standard is rigorous and should be. That standard must, funnily enough, be universally maintained on your other characters after that point which I am personally on the fence about, but it’s not a problem I think I’ll ever run into, and nor is it my place to question my betters.

I digress.

The role involves maintaining a high standard of conduct in both an IC and OOC circumstance and outside of simply being law abiding, you must be ready and willing to throw away your own enjoyment in favour of someone else’s whether that’s training a new Medical intern, or teaching someone where the Head of Personnel’s office is. Those experiences are paramount to new player retention and good experiences.

I’ve mentioned that the round is on your shoulders, but in earnest, the server is very much on your shoulders. Each and every time someone new joins the Aurora, they, unless they’ve had prior experience, might as well have been born yesterday. The learning curve of this game is a brick wall and it is nothing less than arcane to any sane person, and if I had not been personally grabbed and shown around on my first day by a lovely, lovely Quartermaster (not a head of staff, I know, but she served the purpose) and actively introduced to people (RP skill and curiosity aside) I wouldn’t have stayed. Full stop.

 

Could you give us the gist of what is currently happening in Tau ceti and how it affected your character and their career? IPCs and exploding tags, man. That’s the largest plotline right now in my opinion, and for the character I’d be creating for the sake of this, Manuel Mills, Idris Representative, this is a huge turning point in his career to play out. This is the moment in which corporate ideology and personal ethos might just collide.

Shells are enslaved under Idris, make no mistake, and having to reconcile with that fact and the humanity of things that may-or-may-not even have such, will prove to be the hottest dramatic tension I could ask for. Where does this character stand? Where does the false mask of Idris end regarding his persona, how willing is he to suspend his morality in the face of increasing pressure and irrefutable evidence of life, how much can he sympathize when walking on tip-toes? And, perhaps, best of all, what sort of guilt would eat away at that kind of person?

Middle-management, success, unironic faith in the corporate hierarchy—How can those things survive in this kind of state, or how will they otherwise change?

They won’t. I don’t think they will.

I believe, personally, this presents a palpable chance to have a character not have some dramatic heel-turn, but rather subtle pivoting that will slowly, slowly find a recontextualisation of his pre-existing values. This is a regular person, this is not someone strong enough to truly change or genuinely alter his viewpoint because, frankly, he’s comfortable, he’s satisfied, and unless someone has a gun to his head, morals will not trump that comfort.

How does a person live with themselves in that kind of scenario? No direct fault, in theory, but no direct influence either.

The Aurora is a microcosm of these IPC issues. We’re seeing Shells being untagged by sympathizers and simply taking that opportunity to walk free, despite the fact that, at the moment, this is all just a corporate recall and it’s sure to bring about incredibly uncomfortable tugs against this internal dramatic tension.

Honestly, I’m excited even just talking about it. Nienna’s work is top-notch, and to even interact with it on this surface-level degree has me genuinely giddy.  

 

What roles do you plan on playing after the application is accepted?

Corporate Liaison.

Nothing else.

If I could, I’d love for the actual heads of staff roles to remain disabled on my Ckey if that’s at all possible. If I ever drink the bong water become suddenly, miraculously interested in the future, I’d love to reapply with that in mind.

 

Characters you intend to use for command or have created for command. Include the job they will be taking.:

Manuel Mills - Idris Incorporated Liaison :^)

 

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: You tell me, Chief. I think I’m alright, and I’ve been at this a long time, but my style developed in other places.

 

Do you understand your whitelist is not permanent, and may be stripped following continuous administrative action? Yep. Take away my bones.

 

Have you familiarized* yourself with the wiki pages for the command roles? (Typo in there, by the by).

Yes but no. As I stated previously, being a head of staff in earnest interests me about as much as the wonderful sensation of asphyxiation that comes packaged with my sleep paralysis demons.

 

 

Extra notes:

 

I’m just going to place a few footnotes here as this is a strange app at the end of the day:

 

-> I avoid Secret. I’ll up and say it. I’ve very little interest in interacting with loud antags and Fear RP as a concept is pretty ‘meh’ to me, particularly when it comes with the knowledge that none of it is canon. It’s draining, and I think that fits largely in line with the philosophy that I’ve laid out above. The best part of Secret rounds have tended to be when I can brace around the fallout of it all. One was actually a round of Malf. The round itself was horrible, don’t get me wrong, but it had gone really bad, really quickly. So, there I am on Wilhelm in Red Dock with another person who is, frankly, losing her damn mind. He’s going through the motions of comforting her, speaking total bullshit the whole way through, when one of the IPCs who had been converted to the Malf’s side as part of the gimmick (it was a weird day) made an appearance and was summarily lynched and beaten to death before their eyes over the course of minutes. As she’s sobbing into his labcoat, and he’s watching this literal, actual murder unfold, unable to move or look away, faced with the utter hypocrisy of what he was saying— Code Delta. The station will explode.

What I got the chance to roleplay then was a character utterly resigned to fate. The characters walked to Cryo, the woman wanting to instead be peacefully asleep as she died. I’ve never had to RP something quite that painful, and to say it was anything but an experience in which I had to leave for the remainder of the day would be a lie.

I adore some of the incredible situations that I’ve gotten into on secret rounds, like that one, but truthfully, these are very rarely geared towards people like me, and I can probably count my incredibly positive (and memorable) antag-related experiences on two hands. Typically, I’m beating the clock in a psych session while things clearly start to explode.

I’ve no interest in winning a round of SS13. That style of gameplay isn’t my thing and hasn’t been for the entirety of the time I’ve been here.

Plus side, you’ll never have to worry about validhunting :^))).

 

-> “You don’t want the Whitelist? What a fool you are. I'm a god, how can you kill a god? What a grand and intoxicating innocence. How could you be so naive? There is no escape. No recall or intervention can work in this place. Come, lay down your weapons, it is not too late for my mercy.”

Honestly, fair point man.

I don’t want it. I’ve been very clear about not wanting it, and that makes this difficult. I have no doubts that I could do it from an RP perspective, and that’s part of my internal justification behind this app, but the day you find me leading anything on SS13 with any shred of legitimacy is the day I’ve consigned myself to an early grave. It’s uncomfortable for me, I’m not robust or knowledgeable enough to the same degree that you are. It’s not a matter of ‘not’ being up to par, it’s a matter of not having the confidence or will to perform this job to a mechanical standard.

If that disqualifies me then so be it, but the fact remains that Corporate Liaison is not a traditional Head of Staff position. You wield influence, but you really shouldn’t. I’ve heard legends of the Vaurca Breeders that have treated their position with all the mechanical-eloquence of an Aquaman-in-distress, summoning all of the bugboyz and girlz to them because of perceived (and, frankly, legitimate) higher authority in these situations. That’s a terrifying thought, but strictly not one that I’m interested in.

The way I played this role initially was no less than that of a supporting role, and that’s how this will continue. For reference in how I would like to play, I would point to Hepatica’s magnificent portrayal of a Necropolis Rep. With that character, they channel that pseudo-super villain feel to provide entertainment to the people that they’re scouting, but also serve as the utter personification of Necropolis as a company.

I adore that.

I adore that concept and I adore that style of play.

 

-> Semi-related to point one, I’m here for roleplay on the whole, but the way I play might require a little bit of explanation. It’s not weird or strange by any stretch, and I can guarantee I’m not the only one, but I feel it’s relevant to at least give a small taste of my philosophy: I play characters that serve as gateways, or tools.

I create supporting characters exclusively, not because I don’t care about depth (arguably, that’s all I care about) but rather because I love being able to help someone else go just that one step farther. My main has been and will continue to be Wilhelm Sauer, a character I practically only play on Extended because that is what is best suited to the kind of RP I enjoy. My style of Psyching tends to revolve around the underlying assumption of a “service”, but less in an IC sense, and more in an OOC sense. No one comes to the Psych office for fun. If you have nothing to talk about, I’m wasting your time, and that’s a keen part of why cloning sucked so hard for so many people—Half of the time we had these incredible, vibrant RPs about the nature of life and death, and the other half of the time I had people who were practically sprinting out of my chair.

Both are entirely valid.

So, the question remains, “why are you here”? Typically, even if someone is not consciously aware of it, they want something out of a given scenario, and they know what they want in order to accomplish it. The Psych role as I play it, along with many of my other characters both here and elsewhere, is meant to explore a person’s story, to allow them to give me whatever they want so their character can move onto the next step.

Sometimes people really invest in me and those become the most amazing experiences, and other times people use the character as a way to deal with acute trauma before returning to their usual groups. Both styles are fantastic and both parties (I hope) get a lot out of it. I don’t recommend that other people follow my style, of course, but here we are.

What does that have to do with the app?

That’s how I plan on playing this Liaison.

A Corporate Rep breaking down your door to prey on your doubts and offer you a brighter future elsewhere, while quietly supporting both the interests of the company and his proverbial flock on the Aurora is right up my alley as I’ve discovered. I was easily able to bounce in and out of scenes and while far more surface level than my experiences with Wilhelm, they were fun in a sense closer to Clown. In that moment you are a personification, little more than an archetype. Nuance and individuality exist, but the major excitement for people comes from the fact that you’re *exactly* who they expect.

I love being that person for people, and my past year of experience shows it. It’s the RP I specialize in more than anything else, and I will kindly thank the people who gave me the time of day back then and now.

 

-> So, let me be entirely frank with you all.

If you want to take this app down in a fiery comment, you can. I’ve given you all of the tools to absolutely shred every ounce of this; in fact, I’ve practically put the chainsaw against your fingers and whispered, “Gib me”. I’m flagrant in my honesty in this case and I have zero answers to your concerns. I’ve laid myself entirely bare.

I understand why this role/slot is under the whitelist process—Fact of the matter, this whitelist enables you to play a member of government or people who are factually important outside of the station. While you’re not a member of the immediate chain, you come in with clout, which is even more acutely represented by the Vaurca Breeder situation that I brought up earlier.

Whether I get a trial or not, I do earnestly think that a separate whitelist should be made for this role. As is demonstrated by this app, I hope, the skillsets for a Head of Staff vs. a Rep/Liaison/Consular Officer are (in the best case scenario) entirely distinct with some ounces of crossover. I have no doubts that this discussion has happened before, so I could very well be screaming into the void, but hey!

I’ll see you on the other side, partner.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Ventii

[Peppermint]

Yeah, I'm not reading all that. But the characters are good and the RP is strong. 

 

+1

 

EDIT: Oh wait, I was supposed to be asking questions and the like rather than just giving a thumbs-up.

 

1 ) Why an Idris rep? What about them appeals specifically, and do you have any interest in playing others?

 

2) What kind of things do you plan on doing to make your rep(s) feel like they're part of that organisation, rather than just anyone? There isn't that much lore on many of the other companies, so how do you plan on showcasing it when a lot of the details are just implied?

Edited May 9, 2020 by Lemei

[Ventii]

16 minutes ago, Lemei said:

Yeah, I'm not reading all that.

Honestly, me neither.

[Ventii]

39 minutes ago, Lemei said:

Yeah, I'm not reading all that. But the characters are good and the RP is strong. 

 

+1

 

EDIT: Oh wait, I was supposed to be asking questions and the like rather than just giving a thumbs-up.

 

1 ) Why an Idris rep? What about them appeals specifically, and do you have any interest in playing others?

 

2) What kind of things do you plan on doing to make your rep(s) feel like they're part of that organisation, rather than just anyone? There isn't that much lore on many of the other companies, so how do you plan on showcasing it when a lot of the details are just implied?

?y'got some NERVE Peppermint.

1) As of right now, nope! I'm sure I will at some point, but at the moment, this is the character I'm applying with and the one I've thought out the most. I believe I explained my particular enjoyment of this concept at length, but to add on to all of that, Idris is a company of aesthetics. Peak customer service, a highly refined persona meant to be utterly unflappable. It is an incredibly easy thing to extrapolate on, and I felt myself immediately click into the character after having seen quite a few Idris Contractors during the past year. There are certain threads, tiny elements of each distinct take on Idris that one is able to play with and, that's precisely what I did.

2) This is going to get awful repetitive. It all comes down to attitude and aesthetics. For example, what do you think of when you think about Idris? There isn't much, really, especially if you're not all that well-versed in the lore, so that leaves a person like you or I to work with the bare minimum, to make that brand recognizable in the very speech patterns, in the way the character reacts to problems, in the way they hold themselves, in the way they are educated, in the way they discuss things. As I mentioned earlier, it's not dissimilar to Clown or even the strategies of Commedia Del Arte (though, I'm not sure if I'd go so far as to say that I have any lazzi planned) in the sense that a character must be portrayed on the surface level and abstracted to a degree for maximum recognition.

At the crest of the wave of Aurora decency, there's an ounce of room for exactly this kind of approach. Where Commedia would use things like masks, I would instead opt to use speech and physicality. The Idris rep is a man who speaks eloquently and is borderline flirtatious despite having (probably) no interest in you or, really, anyone for the next four planets over. His suits are finely pressed, and he would never leave his office with even a speck of lint on a shoulder or a stray fiber out of place. He smiles, always, and he is quick to compliment. You are never wrong, but you could always be more right.

Perhaps, my favourite element and the only scratch of individuality I really played with on the surface level was that of a focus on one's potential. He was always there to emphasize someone's strengths to a degree that practically comes off as simultaneously a hard-sell and as practiced, despite it being more than a little off-the-cuff.

I hope that answers your question, but this is probably adding more detail onto wayyyyy~ too much detail. A lot of what I just said was represented in my praises of Hepatica's approach, or, at least, implied.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Ventii

[Hepatica]

Great roleplayer, great person, gamer. +1 Easy.

[Shadow7889]

Yeah, you'll make a fine Captain too. 

 

+1

On the grounds that the play Captain too. 

 

Sike. 

[Ventii]

1 hour ago, Shadow7889 said:

Yeah, you'll make a fine Captain too. 

 

On the grounds that the play Captain too. 

 

Not on your life, sport. ❤️

[Roostercat]

This nerd is a competent roleplayer who churns out paragraphs every time he talks like a fucking lunatic. +1

[SampleTex]

Amazing player, have always had great interactions with them and they stay in character really well.

I am skeptical about it however, why would you put yourself through something that you seem to dread having, but having read the reason for why you are applying for the spot, it makes sense. I want to see you playing a corp liason, I feel like it would fit you and your play style very well.

I am however going to beat you up if you don't get this whitelist, don't disappoint.

+1

[Yonnimer]

As the person who pressured told them to make this app, I can definity give it a +1. I believe they can handle it based off of the experiences I've had with a liaison they played from the escape pod role.

[Estoytrucha]

I'm mad this means they're going to be playing their other characters less, but this roleplayer is excellent. Give them a hug and a +1.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

I've read this about two times now, and I've aged six years because of it. 
I'll be granting you a trial. 

MAY/16/2020 -> MAY/23/2020. Best of luck!

[ClemTheDuck]

+1

lots of effort into their RP, I love the amount of detail they put into their characters, really brings them to life!

[Decepter]

+1 ^-^ 

EDIT:

Apparently I have to put a line in here... But I like Manuel Mills (who Ventii plays); who is a great representative of exactly how I imagine an Idris rep!

Edited May 18, 2020 by Decepter
I need extra info for it to be valid?

[Ventii]

3 minutes ago, Decepter said:

+1 

YOU MADE THE ACCOUNT <3.

[Decepter]

1 minute ago, Ventii said:

YOU MADE THE ACCOUNT <3.

I promised didn't I? ^-^

[Melariara]

+1. This man is scary. He knows EXACTLY how to get people to get that Idris(tm) smile, colleague. Puts a HECK of a lot of effort into his emotes, almost scarily so and does it so masterfully. He's a freaking genius on this character and I'd love to see him around all the time.

[niennab]

One of the gems of the server and an easy +1 from me. Your style of writing is great and in seeing your Consular in action, you've made efforts to engage with everyone.

[furrycactus]

Ventii is absolutely spectacular with all of his characters, to be sure. I've been making sure to observe and also interact with his liaison as of late though, and I haven't been remotely disappointed with what I've seen. Mills is utterly fantastic to interact with, he goes out of his way to involve lots of people, the amount of detail that he puts into his words and actions is staggering, and his portrayal of a cunning representative of Idris Incorporated is absolutely fucking phenomenal.

As far as I'm concerned, he's completely nailing this trial, and he would be a stellar addition to the group of command whitelist holders. I genuinely can't overstate my +1.

[Lupo]

Ah, Ventii. 

If Wilhelm Sauer was any indication of their above-par roleplay that inspired even myself to commit to using the "me" command more, I'm not sure what I expected from Mills.

Involving multiple aspects of the station, from service-squad to the insulated Medbay, Mills is eager and completely approachable. I've seen nothing but positive experiences in my observations and I know that this trial is completely unnecessary because I KNOW that roleplay comes so natural to you and each time are characters interact, it is like a breath of fresh air in my otherwise recycled-air-filled lungs. 

+1

[Arrow768]

Alright. Now on the correct application:

If they managed to play "Betty", then they can manage the Corporate Liaison. +1

[ReadThisNamePlz]

So, I had some brain issue's (literally)

I've decided to pass your trial, good job! Locking and Archiving.