Character Complaint: Safiya Isra

[Frances]

Disclaimer: The role of this complaint is to bring about discussion on the proper use of genetics. I do not wish to see the player concerned here punished, but would rather simply like to see people deliberate on whether such behavior should be allowed or forbidden.

Edit: An additional purpose of this complaint would be to discuss Safiya's behavior holistically, and not simply for her position as a geneticist.

BYOND Key: FFrances

Player Byond Key: XXTheFurryXx

Staff involved: None

Reason for complaint:

Approximate Date/Time: Multiple instances, dating back to at least September

I believe most of us are acquainted with Safiya Isra - the station's current resident geneticist. She also happens to be a pink, glowing, telekinetic cat who has been known to appear in various states of undress. In my experience, these are not ideal conditions for a geneticist character to be found in.

My complaint is as follow: most of Safiya's (recurrent) genetics modifications appear to be for the sake of "snowflakiness". Sure, I actually appreciate that she's bringing genetics outside of the testing lab and giving more players a chance to interact with it, but she's also pink. And glowing. And shirtless/naked.

I was fortunate enough to encounter Safiya during one of my rounds, and asked her why she was pink and glowing (the naked bit didn't come up, as she thankfully was wearing her jumpsuit in its entirety at the time). The justification she gave was "complex genetics testing", which I would understand if it was something that happened once or twice, because science can be about extremely fucky things like filling a room with monkeys and setting them all on fire.

However, this just seems to be her usual routine, which brings about the question of the player's intent: is the scenario of a pink glowing Tajaran a wacky happening intended to be presented to the station as a one-off episode, or is this simply how the character rolls? Because I've heard several reports of Safiya's pink, fuzzy antics, and I've ran into them a good 4-5 times in the past month or so, which would lead me to believe (unless I've been incredibly unlucky) that this is regular behavior for the character.

And if you don't want to consider the intent, do consider the result: one of the station's regular characters is a pink, naked telekinetic cat.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Guest

[Jboy2000000]

If you want to see people talk, don't use the complaints board. You should really just use general, because complaints has the ugly little rule about only posting if involved. You probably shouldn't post a complaint about someone if you don't want someone to be punished, that just seems illogical.

[Frances]

If you want to see people talk, don't use the complaints board. You should really just use general, because complaints has the ugly little rule about only posting if involved. You probably shouldn't post a complaint about someone if you don't want someone to be punished, that just seems illogical.

I don't think the rule is being actively enforced seeing as a ton of unrelated or semi-related people have made contributions to complaints without seeing them deleted lately. And the rule should basically be, "if you have something meaningful to add, feel free to".

In this spirit, if you want to defend Furry (or oppose whatever point of view you expect the admins to take), go ahead. If the admins don't actually want to discuss things here (and would rather two separate threads be made for whatever reason), they're also free to tell me, I guess.

[Garnascus]

I think a character complaint here is fine to discuss if this is or is not ok. I will say that every round I play CMO or my RD she always asks for the executive permission form to allow her to leave the lab while under the effects of genetic testing. Its also the general consensus of staff that geneticists sign a waiver before they even come aboard so they can self test.

What safiya is doing is 100% legal IC, well besides the undressing anyway..... Regardless, is not sure if running around as a pink telekinetic tajaran is too out of bounds given the lengths she goes to do it legally but it open to discussing it. I think we do need to draw the line some where on "this is trolley and immersion breaking" if we want to call ourselves a high RP server.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

From a lore perspective this would be acceptable if the character actually faced unceasing and endless jeering whenever she walked outside genetics bright pink.

[Frances]

As much as circumstances can provide insight (they'll also show that other characters from Furry are going to ridiculous lengths to hit on Tajarans and that Furry is, well, a furry), I think the effective result of these actions is what should be examined first and foremost.

This is literally the closest Aurora has ever had to a Citadel Station character and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with it.

[Garnascus]

As much as circumstances can provide insight (they'll also show that other characters from Furry are going to ridiculous lengths to hit on Tajarans and that Furry is, well, a furry), I think the effective result of these actions is what should be examined first and foremost.

This is literally the closest Aurora has ever had to a Citadel Station character and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with it.

 

Can you clarify what you mean by citadel character?

[LetzShake]

I've only seen Safiya pink and glowing once. I can kinda see the Pink thing being something someone might reasonably do to themselves if there's a stable, safe way to do it (I don't understand genetics well enough to know how to test for other side effects) BUT I am against the liberal distribution of powers that often comes with genetics fiddling. Not Safiya specifically but geneticists in general. I thought about writing up a complaint about a particular doctor who used his powers to dump all of chemistry's things into disposals because he didn't like something I said, but instead I just gave him a swirlie.

Because people can have outrageous hair colors, they do that all the time. But I really don't know about how easily people take to being genetically modified that heavily.

That said I think The Furry gets put under the microscope a lot more, consciously or not, because of his ill-advised username. I think I've seen a LOT of geneticists consistently chucklefuck around a lot more with powers and shit like that throughout my time here, and only really get in trouble if a hulk goes batshit on the station too many times. I don't think Safiya is more of an offensive standout than your typical geneticist, and if you want to do anything, genetics itself is the place to start.

[Frances]

Can you clarify what you mean by citadel character?

It's a server that supports a variety (up to 20+) of anthropomorphic beast races, with a variety of customization options, and for some reason, vore. It's basically furry sex central. You have everything from flying pink foxes to two feet tall squirrel people or 10ft. slime taurs. And they're all sex crazed.

Most of Furry's characters are equally sex crazed, and seeing a semi-naked pink cat person with genetics powers just running around is setting a worrying trend, if it's not bad enough in and of itself.

 

That said I think The Furry gets put under the microscope a lot more, consciously or not, because of his ill-advised username.

There could be a simpler explanation, which is that TheFurry's behavior could actually be problematic. Furthermore, I'll add that all that Safiya has done has been within IC regulations, so genetics is honestly not the problem.

[LetzShake]

I don't know, to be honest, I haven't seen any sex crazedness from them, but that's just my experience from ghosting a few rounds and RPing with them once or twice.

Not to say they don't often have thirsty 'suitors' on Safiya's heels but I haven't seen anything a bit sexual happen.

Also Tajara don't have breasts, do they? They probably don't have the same taboo about toplessness.

[Frances]

A geneticist hanging around with their jumpsuit down and completely topless is still a rather silly visual. Doubly so when they're pink and furry (why can't they at least just behave like a normal scientist?)

As for the sex crazedness, it's omnipresent and has been brought up in many complaints. Travis Davis' obsession with hitting on Tajarans has reached memetic levels, and Safiya also likes to mention sex fairly constantly.

As a whole, though, I'm hoping this complaint is easy to understand. I'm just arguing to not have this place become fursona central.

[hivefleetchicken]

I don't know if this was just me judging from Safiya buckling at the knees (uknow what i mean) when I saw someone rub her ears but I'm pretty sure Safiya's ears are also sensitive to sexual stimulation.

Aren't cat-ear-clitorises a furry fetish thing?

If that wasn't the case then fuck me nevermind but I'm pretty sure that's what I witnessed happening.

[Frances]

I don't know if this was just me judging from Safiya buckling at the knees (uknow what i mean) when I saw someone rub her ears but I'm pretty sure Safiya's ears are also sensitive to sexual stimulation.

Aren't cat-ear-clitorises a furry fetish thing?

If that wasn't the case then fuck me nevermind but I'm pretty sure that's what I witnessed happening.

There's honestly a lot in TheFurry's conducts which reflects all of the stereotypically "bad" aspects of the furry fandom (and don't tell me it's a Tajaran thing because I didn't see any Tajarans roleplay this way until recently. The whole notion of nuzzleglomps and hot cat-on-cat full body contact is a new thing.)

However, there's no rule such as "don't be a stereotypical furry" so this is a tricky situation to tackle, as much as it's a silly one.

I believe rules should be enforced in an effort to maintain a modicum of the general "spirit" of the server. I'm pretty sure this spirit involves an absence of using the genetics system to turn your character into your ideal fursona, though I'll try to get the Tajaran loremaster in to confirm.

[LetzShake]

I feel like a lot of this complain is just based on The Furry being... a furry. Rather than actually doing anything wrong. Again, maybe I haven't seen enough, but I think terms like 'cat-ear-clitorises' are just symptomatic of finding trouble where there isn't trouble.

I say this as someone who has done very little in the way of romantically themed RP with any of my characters on Aurora. This isn't because I think sexually charged 'furry' characters are a thing we want. I just don't think these things are going down that path as much as you do.

My only experiences with Safiya have seen the character acting professional. And I'm pretty quick to be suspicious of people who do the dumb.

I just think maybe it should be considered, if he had a different username would this discussion be happening? Or at least would it be framed this way? I don't think it would.

[Frances]

I feel like a lot of this complain is just based on The Furry being... a furry. Rather than actually doing anything wrong.

That might be where we fundamentally disagree. I don't think there's much room for people to act like stereotypical furries on a regular SS13 HRP server. There's furry servers, and furry roleplay communities, but outside of that "furry" behavior is generally widely ridiculed, and for a good reason. I don't care that he's a furry. I don't care if he wants to play a cat character because we already have cat characters. But I do care about him turning a non-furry game into a furry extravaganza.

 

My only experiences with Safiya have seen the character acting professional. And I'm pretty quick to be suspicious of people who do the dumb.

So are you disregarding the part where she gives herself telekinesis, turns herself pink and strips down before taking naps on desks in front of the brig, or is that considered professional behavior?

 

I just think maybe it should be considered, if he had a different username would this discussion be happening? Or at least would it be framed this way? I don't think it would.

It probably would. The argument "people are just trying to lay meaningless accusations on him because they don't like him" can only be used after the accusations are proven to be meaningless.

[Skull132]

My thoughts on this are as follows. If they do it once or twice, which is what I've been led to believe, I don't exactly mind it. We've seen weird shit, like robosexuals and whatever else happen on a regular enough basis to not mind. Further, what's actually neat about this, is the amount of RP it generated. Though, take note, this RP is often aimed towards Safia in a negative fashion, and I've actually received complaints about that as metagrudging.

I have two options here, really. Either: I let things play out as they have been, and allow Safia to be placed under scrutiny for her actions, and not actively bar her from doing silly shit like this (until she's pink every single round or something). Or I stop both sides, and tell them to back the fuck off. I cannot, and will not enable the RP of one side, while stopping the RP of the other, which is what I've been requested to do a week and a half ago.

I prefer option one, I truly do, because it makes for good roleplay. For example, Houssam Jawdat now vehemently dislikes Safia, and calls her a disgrace very actively. Also prods fun at her, etcetera. This is the direct consequence of Safia's own actions, and as such, it is roleplay -- it is not metagrudging. However, the fact that I received complaints about Houssam's actions irks me. People must understand that roleplay is not always fun, it is not a ticket to do whatever the fuck you want for the sake of RP: you make choices, and for those choices are consequences. If it means that other characters dislike your character for those choices, then that is not something I will stop until it exceeds the point of reason, which it has yet to. Otherwise, you'd be asking me to create this little utopia for very specific people, and make a list of, "These are the people you cannot touch."

Please, people, stop being oblivious to the choices you make. It's a little ridiculous when you turn yourself pink, and then act offended as other characters tear you, rightfully, asunder IC, don't you all think?

[Skull132]

...strips down before taking naps on desks in front of the brig...

 

Wait. What.

What the fuck even is this fuckign-sa anjsk.

I give up. SOS.

[Frances]

@Skull

This isn't an issue of a character making questionable choices or acting in an unlikable fashion, imo. This is the issue of a character breaking roleplay conventions of common sense to embody their fursona. It does create conflict, as any ridiculous situation would, but is it actually the kind of ridiculous situation we want to see happening?

(And yes, the pinkening is semi-regular, to the point that it's become a running joke among several people, and I've seen it happen several times despite not playing on the server all that much.)

Edit: Another consideration I'd like to bring up is that the robosexual roleplay happened as a one-off, shameless parody of doubtful canonicity, much like most of the other weird "happenings" (which is something I really don't mind.) In contrast, this seems to be a permanent action, and one that Furry seems to want us to take seriously.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Guest

[TechnoKat]

I've seen Safiya self-antag numerous times, she kept taking syringe guns as a geneticist and loading them with sopoforic syringes. A baldie was pushing her around security about, two times, trying to get past? She took the syringe gun and shot him for shits and giggles, he reacted with punching her down. Then in the same round, shot someone else for insulting her I think, with chloral hydrate syringes.

Funnily, the baldie got arrested, instead of her. This was ahelped but, no avail anyways.

[the_furry]

...strips down before taking naps on desks in front of the brig...

 

Wait. What.

What the fuck even is this fuckign-sa anjsk.

I give up. SOS.

 

fyi, this is another one of those, never fucking happened where the fuck did you get that comment, comments. safi rolls down her jumpsuit after a heavy work out(playing basketball) or if she’s overly heated for ic reasons....she’s never been naked unless in a shower which she's done like once...so...yeah...so tired of this bullshit.

skull my complaints come from that I have to constantly defend myself from these absurd accusations….constantly. Frances paints it pretty clear that I need to defend myself against every accusation no matter how retarded. Which leaves her free to continually make more that I have to address..

 

It probably would. The argument "people are just trying to lay meaningless accusations on him because they don't like him" can only be used after the accusations are proven to be meaningless.

 

So skull sorry if I get it muddied with legit dislike charater rp.

Oh look at another where the fuck did you get that comment.

 

I've seen Safiya self-antag numerous times, she kept taking syringe guns as a geneticist and loading them with sopoforic syringes. A baldie was pushing her around security about, two times, trying to get past? She took the syringe gun and shot him for shits and giggles, he reacted with punching her down. Then in the same round, shot someone else for insulting her I think, with chloral hydrate syringes

 

Guess I have to defend this absurdity too. Frist, I started getting syringe guns because if I touch anyone with a claw (even if they are beating the shit outa me) I’ll be accused of being a typical aggressive cat and get an ooc complaint about that. Second, lel what? This bald fuck rammed me, over and over, I step out of the fucking way at least four-five times, he turned around and walked into me. He didn’t say a word just kept walking into me completely disrupting rp. Where the fuck did you get only twice and I did it because they insulted me? ramming into people would be a form of aggression and assault and to make sure I wasn’t being accused of being an overly aggressive cat I put the fuck to sleep rather than disarmed attempt. (cause we both know if I disarmed he would have started punching me and id have to claw and there for I’d somehow magically be defending an occ complaint about being to aggressive).

Anyways…skull Safi gets a lot of shit icly for being pink, and I love it. it makes great rp comments and fun. My problem is that this is suddenly an ooc complaint. I'm constantly told by admins to write IR reports before jumping to ooc complaints. playing with genetics can easily be an IC report but w/e. here we go, another complaint. weee... by the same people no less.

I mean fuck, heaven forbid these people actually rp with me rather than make snide remarks run off and submit a character complaint. /everything/ safi does has reasons, I’ve put a shit ton of work in her.

Oh no I turned her pink, shes a fucking geneticist and exploring genetics. I also only do this once every week or so and it’s been weeks since I’ve last done this excluding today.

Oh no she rolled down her shirt, she believes in equal rights (fuck if you’d know as you’ve never rped with her) and does so because if a male tajara can she feels she should be allowed. Not to mention she only does it during appropriate times such as when shes wanting to relax or after a game of basketball. Literally nothing sexual about it. never has been…

Oh no she has tk…dude, martin has gotten hulk every fucking round he’s been on for two week straight. Shes also a geneticist…

I don’t feel like going through the rest of this list to explain why this has literally become children complaining about nothing.. I’ve had complaints dating back ages and every single one of them (with one exception) has been found to be baseless bullshit that I have to fight tooth and nail over because of this wild complaining.

Finally skull, I’m fine with the first option, if it really remained ic and didn’t get an endless flow of ooc complaints and people trying to take away my character. No joke, it’s only been this last month that I’ve decided to start doing counter complaints over this bullshit. Prior it would just be one ooc complaint after another with me defending my actions relentlessly. My biggest complaint is and has been for them to stop their relentless bitching about air, that and when people who I have no idea who they are treats my charater like shit based of info they meta gained but that’s another matter.

[Frances]

The story of the naked catnapping on brig desks was reported by Inverted_rectum, I'm not sure if Safiya simply had her jumpsuit rolled down (I assume so) but Inverted doesn't tend to make up stories so I'm assuming it happened.

Anyway, you can make up a ten-paragraph essay that explains in details your justifications, it doesn't change anything from the fact that Pink. Naked. Telekinetic. Cat.

idk what the creators of HRP had in mind when they made it but it probably wasn't this.

And I'm gonna be fully honest with you here, if you're getting tired of people making complaints against you you should probably cut down on the over-the-top furry stuff. You can get pissed and curse a lot but it won't turn the tables around or make the argument go in your favor simply because "people like to pick on you a lot". Some of the complaints against you were indeed founded, and those that weren't you weren't punished for (afaik), so you shouldn't have to worry on that aspect.

Edit: I'm not sure what the deal with the jumpsuit is but I observed the round for a solid 30-40 minutes and Safiya had it down the whole time, as she walked throughout the entire station to visit various departments, up until the time she was stabbed to death by an angry diona with an esword in maintenance.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Guest

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I have to agree with the_ here. I didn't notice before he mentioned it that this would have been better served beginning with an IR report. An OOC complaint would be better served if an IR failed.

I've seen Safiya be bright pink as Houssam a few times, and he always IC'ly cringes. But other than her. . . Very eccentric and weird behavior, she follows the regulations about her geneticist powers reasonably well. Admittably I IC'ly and OOC'ly stop caring about whatever permission I stamped off on unless it becomes a problem I have to deal with later. I haven't had anyone complain IC'ly that Houssam decided to stop giving Safiya executive permissions, and Houssam is very 'one strike you're out', so it makes little sense that there's an entire complaint when there has been little IC retaliation.

[Frances]

Okay, lemme try to explain why I think this should be an OC complaint rather than an IC one.

You have a character. Her name is Virgilia Aetherlux. Virgilia is 28, 7'8, has long, flowing green hair, mechanical eyes that are color-changing depending on her mood, and her entire body is covered in tattoos, face included. (Sorta like this.) Virgilia is addicted to opiates and has been known to suffer psychotic episodes. She's also the captain of the NSS Aurora.

Now, consider the following:

• -Virgilia is 7'8 because she has been raised in a low-gravity environment. People raised in low-gravity (such as lunarians) are known to be abnormally tall and suffer from a variety of physical defects due to the body's inability to cope effectively with growth in low-gravity environments.
  
  -Virgilia has mechanical eyes because she lost her biological ones in a dramatic accident. (Can't make up anything for the color-changing bit, sorry.)
  
  -Virgilia dyes her hair green because she likes it. Ain't nothing really stopping her.
  
  -Virgilia's entire body is covered with tattoos because she follows an ancient Lunarian religion.
  
  -Virgilia is addicted to opiates as she was once prescribed them following her eye accident. She's able to keep buying them on the black market thanks to her salary as a captain.
  
  -Virgilia suffers from PTSD from the time she served in the army, and from being the sole survivor of her previous unit which was killed in a bloody war against the Vox. She only really snaps at people who are jerks anyway, so as long as you're her friend you don't have to be afraid.
  
  -Virgilia is the captain of the NSS Aurora because she's just damn good, which caused the brass to overlook regulations and allow her to become a captain two years early. This isn't really extraordinary seeing as competent people can get to important positions early on irl, and it's really not that big of a stretch. She's not a 17-year-old captain or something.

 

Does this make Virgilia a good character? No.

Yet I've provided a valid and believable reason for every single of Virgilia's traits.

Yet, Virgilia is still fucking ridiculous.

It's not something that needs to be dealt with IC, because it's not ingrained within an IC problematic. And you're shitting me if you're telling me TheFurry, a player who complains on a constant basis of metagrudging and people unjustly hating him and his characters, is turning himself pink in an effort to stimulate healthy and interesting IC conflict. He just, well, wants to be pink.

If a complaint were made, DOs would look at it for half a second and either go "yep, that's a person not doing their job" or "well, we don't really care", but either way, they simply wouldn't be able to address the heart of the issue.

[Guest]

The story of the naked catnapping on brig desks was reported by Inverted_rectum...

Classic. While I'm friends with the guy and have a dose of respect for him, he does tend to blow shit out of proportion. I wouldn't consider this a valid report. Ask him to give logs next time before you chose to believe him.

[Guest]

I have to agree with Fran here. I think she's driven her point home about visually ridiculous characters, even though this report about the catnap isn't much to go on.

It is not hard to come up with a justification for why your fur's pink. Yes, it was funny the one time Nasir Ha'kim lost a bet and had his fur dyed some ridiculous yet hilarious color. That made sense, but the event was only for a short time. People laughed it off because it also OOCly poked at Tajarans from other servers having ridiculous fur colors.

It's not hard to come up with a justification for why you have several genetic powers in your arsenal in a singular moment. "I'm testing for genome modifications to better facilitate the resilience and endurance of other crew members/biologicals." This is a logical explanation, and people trust and assume that you won't abuse it...

Until you do it anyway.

Like, look. Bland characters are boring, we get it. Normalcy is so terrible to roleplay nowadays. Furry, can I ask you to do one thing, and one thing only? Please don't make your character a walking, talking glittering human sparklecat. You can roleplay however the hell you want for all I care, but please don't make yourself look like the biggest snowflake on the station. I've had fun with you on cult rounds and fucking with xenobiology in hilarious ways, and I do think you're a cool guy.

However, I would want you to be honest with me. I am always willing to discuss what problems you or anyone else has with me. I might sound or post like an asshole, but I like to think I can be reasonable if you just ask me to be. I want you to be reasonable, right now, Furry. Has walking around as a genetically supermodded pink Tajaran done any good for anybody but yourself? I'd like you to consider this, I don't want to be mean.

In terms of Isra and Travis, I'd have nothing to complain about you if they weren't outright ridiculous sometimes. It's understandable people go overboard when they want to have fun, I get it.