[Accepted] DaBurs - Vaurca Whitelist Application

[DaBurs]

[APPLICATION WRITTEN PRE-VAURCA REBOOT]

After reading the lore page for the Vaurca species it was not specifically stated and made clear that there are a very limited number of hives, instead of their sizable race being made up of thousands of hives. As such, the lengthy backstory I had written for my Vaurca does not fit the lore requirement. However, since I wrote this application before the reboot Jackboot has nicely decided he would check the application as-is, as long as I promise to follow the new lore. So, reposted below is the old application (Which luckily I saved as a txt file the first time I wrote the application!):

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BYOND Key: DaBurs

Character Names: Hugh Ellrich, Tjaden Wahlquist, Meryl Powers

Species you are applying to play: Vaurca

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): Matte Silver

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes

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: I want to play Vaurca to experience the challenges of being such an unappealing and looked down upon species, and to overcome discrimination.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: Vaurca are much more jarring than humans, and physically, their anatomy of course is very different from a human. Interestingly, or disturbingly, the anatomy being more akin to that of some Earth insects that humans may be familiar with. Discrimination and odd looks are something to except different than if you play a normal human.

Character Name: Ka'Akaix'Shiirl Hoxlm

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately 2 paragraphs

Ka'Akaix'Shiirl'Hoxlm (Hoxlm for short as the humans and other races call him, - by his hive's name.) was born from the Hoxlm hive as an unbound Vaurca aboard the Titan Prime. Taken away from the VR paradise his brood shares, Hoxlm initially felt confusion and sadness. He did not understand why his drone siblings acted like they did- why they didn't feel in the same way he felt, until he found others like him. He slowly found out a few of his own Hoxlm kind shared his status of being unbound. They formed a small, close knit group. Often would they talk of what life meant, and why they were where they were. What the future held for them and their emotionally devoid hive. Then there came The New Area. A historic moment went underway as contact with humanity is made. Hoxlm's small group assembled as the news began to spread. They spoke of what new opportunities this new, unknown race they have encountered would hold. They spoke of the dangers. Hoxlm dismissed his unbound group, he saw only the brightest future ahead with this 'humanity' they have found. He expressed doubts of any danger, doubts he would soon regret.

The lone TFTC destroyer came. It acted quick. Hoxlm started his journey to the front of the ship, to get a view of the new planet they orbited. He went alone, he wanted to think. As he shuffled through the cramped compartments and spent the better part of the day walking, he found himself at the front of Titan Prime staring down at the planet. Then something moving in the smudged glass caught his eye. A human envoy? Politicians of some sort? An ambassador, prehaps. They hadn't yet made it to orbit, it couldn't have been a ship for unloading his brethren. Four large warheads left the ship, Hoxlm slammed his head against the glass as the entirety of Titan Prime shook. He looked back up to see the blaring sight of mass driver shots being pumped into the ship. It shook like an quake, and he fell to his knees. Before he could even look up his eyes burned. He saw the flaring light of the nuclear warheads burn in the far distance of the ship. Most of his hive was gone. When he had landed on New Gibson, he saw none of his fellow unbound from his hive. Where they dead? Did they end up somewhere else? He did not know.

On New Gibson he found he had a new knack, his suspicious nature always helping him figure out who stole what little food from who between the other unbound, or even some of the humans who appreciated his help in finding missing supplies the desperate took off from them. He had a hunch, and a no-nonsense attitude. The events on Titan Prime had made him jaded, diligent and impartial. He loved his Hive despite their flaws, despite their lack of ambition or personality. He missed his friends, but they were gone now, and he had to do what he felt was right. That's when he met John Bradshaw. NanoTrasen recruiter, looking for blue-collar workers for cheap pay. It's safe to put a Vaurca in the void of space than an human, after all. What wasn't safe about the unbound Vaurca however is when you spit on them. That's exactly what happened as two grasping, dirty hands brushed up against his nice company suit. The groveling unbound buzzed loudly and ripped his briefcase out of his hands, darting off quickly. Hoxlm saw the entire thing, running after the disgruntled Vaurca. Dead end. Grasp marks dragged along the brick wall lead to a bit of darkly colored ripped leather. It was from the suitcase, no doubt. He took the leather and began his questioning, all the Vuarca around the alley were asked if they saw the one who was running with the case. He would show them the leather. They pointed him into a run-down store. A shifty looking human, unshaved and unkept ran the counter. Hoxlm slapped the leather infront of the man and asked him where the case was. He bent down, bringing up the leather case. Some Vaurca had sold it to him, cheap- because he couldn't unlock it. Hoxlm got the case for a loaf of molded bread he kept in his burlap sack, and brought it back to Mr. Bradshaw. He was impressed at this Vaurca's cunning, his investigatory skills.

"You know, we have an opening on one of our mining stations- The NSS Aurora. You could make for a fine detective, if you wore some clothes. Interested?"

What do you like about this character? I like Hoxlm because he pushes the norms of what a Vaurca is supposed to be. Even though he has no special skills, he uses his knack for sleuthing to try and sniff out problems. He tries to make his own life his, breaking the normal social boundaries and expectations of small manual labor jobs for his people, taking it a step up to be a protector of sorts as his role of a detective, to keep all who harm the crew he works with locked away through clever investigatory work to found out who tries to defy the station.

How would you rate your role-playing ability? People like to put a "X/10" score here. I won't do that. I like to let others rate my roleplaying ability. But personally, I think I'm quite capable of roleplaying and making an interesting roleplay for those involved, but most importantly to try and keep roleplay enjoyable as I spend my time on the server.

Notes:This is my first alien application. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I don't expect alot of good feedback, so I just ask to please be gentle.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Guest

[Jboy2000000]

As I said in DaBurs mod app, Ive only ever had bad interactions with them that paint them in a bad light both ICly and OOCly. I don't know if it still exists because of the forum melting, but Darbur countered valid point brought up by a member of our stuff by saying they didn't have any 'facts' even though everything they said could be backed up by an admin and logs on the server. Ive also interacted with them as Hugh Ellrich, where they always seem to make a nuisance of themselves. I interacted them as QM during a round where they were not an antag, and they decided simply because I didn't let them come into cargo and take pictures of someone who was away on the asteroid, they would refuse to hand over the mech, ID locked it, and avoided security when I brought to their attention that they were guilty of theft and sabotage for not handing over a mech rightfully made for cargo, and then making it unusable by them. I also heard from another character via PDA that they were constantly complaining about my character with insults that you would expect to hear from a bald grey tider. In another round I had a brief interaction with the same character again as an ERT escort for Campin's DO, through my very short time being in the RnD department with the DO, it also seemed like they were being problematic as a robotcist once more, but I don't know if they were an antag or not because of the staff at the time mass winding everyone and then OOC turning into salt.

[Jboy2000000]

If you want more people to take notice of the app, you're allowed to post links in OOC in the game once per round

[Skull132]

Topic cleaned of off-topic shenaniganry. DaBurs will post a proper explanation now, and we'll let the admins decide the rest.

Other feedback is still expected/helpful.

[DaBurs]

As I said in DaBurs mod app, Ive only ever had bad interactions with them that paint them in a bad light both ICly and OOCly. I don't know if it still exists because of the forum melting, but Darbur countered valid point brought up by a member of our stuff by saying they didn't have any 'facts' even though everything they said could be backed up by an admin and logs on the server. Ive also interacted with them as Hugh Ellrich, where they always seem to make a nuisance of themselves. I interacted them as QM during a round where they were not an antag, and they decided simply because I didn't let them come into cargo and take pictures of someone who was away on the asteroid, they would refuse to hand over the mech, ID locked it, and avoided security when I brought to their attention that they were guilty of theft and sabotage for not handing over a mech rightfully made for cargo, and then making it unusable by them. I also heard from another character via PDA that they were constantly complaining about my character with insults that you would expect to hear from a bald grey tider. In another round I had a brief interaction with the same character again as an ERT escort for Campin's DO, through my very short time being in the RnD department with the DO, it also seemed like they were being problematic as a robotcist once more, but I don't know if they were an antag or not because of the staff at the time mass winding everyone and then OOC turning into salt.

 

Jboy has respectively had only bad interactions with me, because infact as he himself will probably tell you if asked, has only had a single interaction with me. A roleplay that lasted less than five minutes. In that five minutes I was ICly spoken very rudely to by Jboy's QM character (Which I didn't bring into OOC, whatsoever. The bad light Jboy sees me in OOCly being non-existent. I have not once talked to them OOCly about the single encounter we had. I like to keep IC IC and OOC OOC.) after I had made my first mech, a RIPLEY unit. I wanted to commemorate the occasion by getting a photograph of me, the mech, and the miner. Something I thought would be a nice little flavor-adding to my IC experience. Jboy's character rudely demanded I get out of the mech, and that I would not be allowed to have the picture. After a short argument I asked if I could instead just get the picture of me and the mech, without the miner. After some more rude chatter and denial, I decided I wouldn't deliver this mech to the QM. ICly I made a decision that if they wanted it, they would have to come back to the lab and get it themselves. I took it back to the roboticist lab, to which I was reported over the common radio for stealing the mech I had made and not yet delivered. Eventually as a show of good will I took the mech back to the QM, and security never even got involved. Regarding the second part of Jboy's paragraph. I WAS a changeling antag that round, and as such I WAS causing problems, because I had been caught in the act of absorbing a cargo assistant's DNA. So of course, that is totally justifiable. I was on the run from the station security the entire round, luckily I had a wonderful changeling partner that took out all the security and we escaped the station as the only survivors.

The OOC salt mentioned might have been because of the fact that (And as an admin told me it was justified over a private message after I had done it) I hooked up atmos to the main distro loop after the announcement was made that agents would be boarding the station. Of course, it was a false alarm, so no agents were harmed, but it was still verified and justified by the administration..

Thank you.

[Jboy2000000]

Once more, I was simply bringing this fact to light. I am in no way personally attacking you, or attempting to sabotage you. This is exactly the kind of thing Skull JUST said to avoid, so I will not be responding to that aspect any further. Now, why is it important to this app that you acted the way you did as your roboticst as a non-antag? You are a roboticist, you are on the station to work, you are here to build mechs and then give them to the departments you built them for. You are a professional, you are expected you act professionally. Refusing to hand over a mech, and them making it unusable is illegal under corporate regs theft and sabotage, and is incredibly childish, as is complaining to your co-working about the "stuffy cunt" Quartermaster. And yes, you did already 'deliver' the mech, you were in the mech, inside cargo's lobby, you just refused to get out and give it to cargo because the miner wasn't in cargo, and most likely SSD which I told you in-character. This seems very irresponsible, and you're just playing a human in a roboticist role, and it speaks about what you may do as a Vaurca miner when someone doesn't give you what you want, and you control the supply of supplies science needs to do anything and make their round fun.

[DaBurs]

Yet another lengthy reply to try and garbage up my application. Keep the first thing you said, remove the last paragraph. There is a reason Skullface removed everything else. Stop making my goddamn application into an argument thread.

[SierraKomodo]

Since you two /still/ can't figure it out, I'm going to be forced to lock this until an admin can decide what to do, as per Skull's last post.

[Tablespoon]

Alright, oth sides have had their say. Jboy said his bit and DaBurs responded. Further posts should not deal directly with the points Jboy touched on (unless it's by a third party adding more relevant information).

[Nanako]

The only interaction i remember with your characters was a cult round where you were antag. I saved your life twice in one shift, once after you fell to security, and then again by sheer chance of carrying a scientist, and overhearing on his radio that you were left in a vented brig.

Upon arriving at medical and trying to treat you for your ruptured lung, you immediately got up, assaulted this defenseless doctor and attempted to flee by stealing my exosuit. I had a bloody lip for the rest of the shift That's gratitude for you i guess. I suppose you were an antag, but that still felt shitty

Aside from that, looking at your application, the backstory seems kind of snowflakey. it's like 3x as long as it should be and imo not well written.

Intended or not, you're likely to run into fairly little discrimination on aurora. The whole 'undersdog overcoming racial oppression' thing doesn't really work, and attempts ive seen at it come across as hypersensitive and annoying.

I don't have a lot to base it on so ill hold off on casting a vote, but right now i'm leaning towards negative.

[DaBurs]

Thanks for the feedback. But yeah, as I posted in my app prominently, I don't expect to 'overcome' racial oppression, I expect it to be one of the larger factors of my character, being discriminated against that is. I think overcoming racial oppression is impossible, in the real world and in roleplay.

[AvrathilElmheath]

I recently played with DaBurs (myself being Ava Lee) as their character Adrianna Beach, as an assistant shadowing them in their job as janitor. They were very patient with me, were not rude or dickish, and were very helpful. Besides me initially neglecting to put down wet floor signs, DaBurs showed no unfriendly behavior to me. All in all, they were not unpleasant

[UnknownMurder]

Sorry, I'm going to have to say -1.

I have watched you for a little brief of time and noticed this big exploit thing in a unprofessional way what I would want to see from a Vaurca:

Tainavaa has informed me that you were splashing paint around the Station. I don't want to see a Vaurca having that RP skills, and I'm going to be honest. People are starting to hate you for that.

[DaBurs]

Woah, woah. I never once splashed paint around the station. Not a single time. I'd advise you rethink your decision on that one.

I welcome and encourage the admins to retrieve logs proving otherwise, because I've never done that. Ever.

Furthermore, who are these 'people' that are starting to hate me for something I didn't do?

Edit; I've requested an admin to check the logs of the round to prove my innocence. Yes, I saw the same person you did run around sloshing paint everywhere, no it wasn't me.

Edit:

| what he said.

|

V

Edited April 15, 2016 by Guest

[SoapyCup]

I was the one that dealt with the guy that did the painting and will confirm that it was not DaBurs.

[Mappel6]

I'm going to start by saying that I play Alaina Winters. So, since most people probably know of the relationship between DaBurs's character, Hugh Ellrich, and my character, I'm going to say that I will be as unbiased as possible, and will try to point out as many flaws as I can in the time that I have been interacting with DaBurs. Despite this, I will say that I am going to be looking at slightly different things that many here seem to care about. Instead of attempting a full analysis of DaBurs and how they are OOCly, I'm going to focus on the IC portion of things. Saying this, I will start with a very negative OOC point.

- DaBurs likes to fuck around a LOT.

Now, this is kinda something that melds into both IC and OOC. A good few times, I've seen him (both through the eyes of Alaina and through observation) mess with things in usually minor ways. However, they are mostly things that could be considered minor crimes in character, and some were definitely played off as accidents (even if they OOCly definitely weren't), which I will admit does fit Hugh Ellrich's character. Since this is something that I think might stretch beyond IC to the OOC, however, I will say that this is actually a very strong negative point.

Now, I'll cover what I know about one of his characters (since Hugh is actually the ONLY character of DaBurs's that I have RPed with extensively), and then what I think of the character application itself.

Hugh Ellrich

Don't get me wrong, I find Hugh absolutely HILARIOUS. However, I feel like some parts of his character would have been scrutinized by NanoTrasen further than they are implied to have been. As I stated earlier, Hugh is actually very immature and prone to fucking around. This said, Hugh actually does his job. When he was a Roboticist, I (as Alaina) mostly played as a Cargo Technician, and yes, we got messages from Hugh asking for materials. He'd also state his purpose, and send the request in a professional manner, even when it wasn't required. When he changed his character slightly to be able to move to Scientist as well, he immediately started getting to work there, too, making bombs with a partner almost immediately, and may I add, very efficiently. While I will once again stress the scrutiny I have on the immaturity, I will pass that as character design (seeing a completely different statement having been said about another character) and give a thumbs up at this point.

Ka'Akaix'Whateverthehell

Unlike some others here, I will say that I actually enjoyed the idea of this character. Yes, he's 'snowflakey,' yes, he's different. But what's the difference between a Vaurca that's come to dislike oppression and want to break the mold, and a human with an incredible sob story that brings pity to everyone's mind? Yes, bad things happen, especially to Vaurca, but I don't think a specific set of bad things should be scrutinized as much as that as long as it's not something like being hit by gamma rays and turning green as a human. The Vaurca's bio was long, yes, but I enjoyed reading it and I enjoyed the idea for the character. Length does not forgo quality, but I will say that from actually reading it instead of tl;dring it, I can say that DaBurs's Vaurca character is well thought out and well done. I don't have many doubts that DaBurs can play this character, and I have no doubt that DaBurs understands the Vaurca race that he's applying for.

I'm sure this will get shot down almost immediately by DaBurs's haters as being biased, but I will say that I have been as honest as I could have been in this analysis, and so, I will go ahead and give a +1. But I will say, I don't want to end up regretting this.

TL;DR: +1. While I have some scrutinies about DaBurs and one of his existing characters, I'm going to say he's fully capable of RPing the character he's made correctly, and that the character he's made is well thought out.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Hello! Sorry about the delay. Silvertalisman, the previous overseer for our space termines, has left due to IRL obligations taking away their available time here, and the species defaulted back to me for responsibility. I've done a complete overhaul of the Vaurca species once they defaulted back to me, and since this app was posted before I did that i've decided to judge it based on the merits of the lore when it was posted, as long as Dabur pinkie swears to read up on and follow the new lore.

With that said,

The application would fly by itself.

The responses pointing out your general behavior had me pause though, and I talked to a mod over staff discord to see if you had a history of powergaming or general robustitude that would make me (understandably) wary about giving you access to an intentionally robust, mechanically powerful race.

There's not really anything to make me worry there, except you were the one engineer that pinned down my unathi in a breacher suit when I was trying to assassinate a tajaran diplomat. You were bwoink'd for that I guess so I don't want to do some double jeopardy thing and use it against you. Otherwise, there's nothing to make my wariness outweigh my willingness, so I'll go ahead and accept this application!