[Approved] Ornias' Dionaea Application

[Ornias]

BYOND Key:Ornias

Character Names:Joie Desai (Main), Breccan Weaver, Neomi Drayton

Species you are applying to play: Dionaea

What color do you plan on making your first alien character (Dionaea & IPCs exempt): N/A

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

---

---

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:

Dionaea are the most interesting race in the entire game as far as I am concerned. Mysterious, unknown, stout, and intelligent, but with enough downsides to equal them out and make them an incredible race to learn and experience. Their individuality opens up so many different role-playing situations, making the game more interesting for both other crew and me. I love interacting with them, I actually thoroughly enjoyed reading the article on them, and I'd love an opportunity to play as one. Also, hardly anybody plays them. I'd love the opportunity to be a part of that.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

A multitude of things; they are so separated from humans, it makes it tricky to explain all of them. They are definitely more curious than a majority of humans, and their natural curiosity drives them. Powered by a photographic memory, and a will of iron, they are a formidable force both politically and physically. They are different biologically, and I think that they follow a vastly different philosophy than humans as well, considering their makeup of smaller organisms. And, as a final note, their culture is intensely interesting- I love the whole person-to-person society which they have. Maybe I'm just rambling, but I love every part of this race.

---

---

Character Name: Branch that Grasps at Clouds

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

Branch that Grasps at Clouds was part of a small, unnamed subgroup near the Sol system until a human scouting ship, doing a routine sweep arrived. After a violent confrontation, the Dionaea took the scouting vessel, and, after intense investigation of the vehicle, decided to use it for their own means. Branch that Grasps at Clouds, a newly created Dionae, was one of the pilots of the vessel. When the human fleet that it had arrived from found the vessel had been taken over by hostile life-forms, they destroyed it quickly and effectively. Branch that Grasps at Clouds would have died there and then if he had not been picked up by the assaulting fleet and kept a prisoner. With the intense learning speed of a Dionae, he learned their language within the month, and as a prisoner of the vessel proved his worth through first manual labor, and then as time progressed moving on to mechanical engineering, and by the end of it he was a competent, if inefficient roboticist. After about fifteen years aboard the shuttle, at the end of which he was less a prisoner and more an employee, he was granted an opportunity at freedom. Through a series of debates, discussions, and trials, he was declared a free citizen of Sol, and released onto Earth. Finding work as a roboticist, he continued in his goal while perfecting the language to the best of his ability and learning more every day. He never really displayed a desire to go back to his life beforehand, and often speaks nostalgically of his 15 years aboard the fleet.

One day, while performing a routine limb replacement, he was offered a position aboard the NSS Aurora. After careful deliberation, and after making quite sure that his current employers were alright with him leaving his line of occupation, he set out to prove himself aboard the station.

What do you like about this character?

I'm not quite sure how to write a paragraph on this, because quite simply, I love the character. He's loyal, kind, and curious, but slow, cautious, and wise. I love the idea of playing a character who is so involved, hands-on, and who's self-built. His past gives him a lot of lee-way for role-playing and potential slip-ups while I am learning the quirks of the race.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

Well, most of the time I'd say about a 7/10, but when I play an antag, it drops to like. 2. I'm still learning to play as an antag, because I've avoided them for the majority of my time playing in place of having fun on the station.

---

---

Notes:

I've never applied for a race before, and I haven't seen as much of this race as I'd like to, so I won't be perfect, but I'll try hard! <3

Thanks!

[ShameOnTurtles]

+1

Every time I've been in a roleplay situation with him, he has added to the experience. His characters are well thought out and well played. Especially with his journalist character, he is very eloquent and can connect the whole station together.

Granted, I don't have very much knowledge of the Dionaea, but from your answers I can see that you understand how they are interesting and unique.

[The Stryker]

+1, Ornias role-plays well and the back story seems good enough.

[Killerhurtz]

OK so. Sorry for the delays, got sidetracked several times.

There's a few things that irk me:

 

• You mention regularly Dionaea physical might. Is this something you plan on involving in any future characters?
  
• I'm not sure I remember saying they have a photographic memory OR a will of iron in general, so if you could provide excerpts to refresh my memory...
  
• Powerful force politically? Like what?
  
• I don't remember mentioning much culture either. Mind helping me remember?
  
• Question. Why would they keep a Dionaea prisoner from a gestalt that was known to hijack the very thing they took it prisoner with?
  
• Why did that gestalt take the ship anyway? Is it simply to imitate one of the discovery points?
  
• Side note, it's not very effective if something survived.
  
• Yes. Because the most logical course of action, for people who captured a creature capable of taking over ships, is teaching it how the ship works. Myes.
  
• Myes. A creature who arguably killed at least a dozen people by hijacking something would be just made a citizen. Yess.
  
• You say that, as an antag, your RP skill drops to 2. There is already a large issue with Dionaea antags being, for the lack of a better term, "complete shitters". How can I know such a situation will not arise?
  

 

Overall, the initial feel leaves me reluctant to grant you a whitelist. So let's talk for a little.

[Ornias]

Initially I was a bit scared of this long list of critiques, but these all seem understandable so I'm gonna move through these.

You mention regularly Dionaea physical might. Is this something you plan on involving in any future characters?

Simply put, yes. I really love the whole idea of Dionaea being mighty but slow, and I plan to (in future, not for my first character) make great use of this in RP.

I'm not sure I remember saying they have a photographic memory OR a will of iron in general, so if you could provide excerpts to refresh my memory...

Sure thing! An excerpt from the wiki article: "gestalts still show impressive knowledge quite often, pointing towards the species having memory on-par, if not superior, to digital data storage solutions known to species."

And the will of iron I assumed due to their incredible natural curiosity, which wouldn't come without the will to do it. Maybe kind of a leap, but it just seemed to fit with the archetype.

Powerful force politically? Like what?

Perhaps this was too big a concept to put into a throw-away sentence, but with a mixture of being incredibly intelligent, able to learn things instantly, and being able to learn all languages by genetic exposure, in combination with the fact that they seem to be (at least from my experience) one of the least-hated races, I think that they will have a lot of RP value outside of just being a chew-toy for humans, if that makes sense.

I don't remember mentioning much culture either. Mind helping me remember?

Sure thing! According to the wiki page, there is very little overarching culture with the Dionaea- they are all completely diverse and disconnected, but with many major themes- such as their names, their knowledge being passed down by mouth-to-mouth, that sort of thing. But each group, so to speak, of the Dionaea, has their own culture - the Reade Colossus has its own bar, Venter's Satellite being almost a complete hive-mind with individuals of the gestalt not fearing for their own saftety, etc. This gives me a lot of room for RPing an adaptable background and culture, which is yet another reason why I chose it.

Question. Why would they keep a Dionaea prisoner from a gestalt that was known to hijack the very thing they took it prisoner with?

For the same reason that we keep people who broke into prisons in prison. The scouting vessel was overwhelmed by a large number of attackers, but they only captured an individual Dionae.

Why did that gestalt take the ship anyway? Is it simply to imitate one of the discovery points?

Yes. As it says on the wiki-page, they are a VERY curiosity-driven race- and it would probably be more of a stretch to assume that they wouldn't try to use the ship.

Whats more, the second discovery of the Dionaea encountered the same immediate hostility for the sake of curiosity- the ship was taken, its passengers killed, and it was cleared, before being let go. This is basically running under the assumption that they had seen it being piloted as they had tried to escape, and mimicked them.

Side note, it's not very effective if something survived.

Nothing on the vessel survived. If you mean by the people who captured the ship, those were part of the fleet itself, not part of the vessel. Apologies if that wasn't conveyed properly.

Yes. Because the most logical course of action, for people who captured a creature capable of taking over ships, is teaching it how the ship works. Myes.

This never happened. They learned through mimicry of the scouting vessel attempting to escape, and through their own investigation.

Myes. A creature who arguably killed at least a dozen people by hijacking something would be just made a citizen. Yess.

As I said, he was not one of the hijackers. Do I believe it would be unrealistic if they just let him go? Yes. But this was after fifteen years of service, and with a lengthy process of trials and debates, of a creature that was a very young age (especially for Dionaea) when the hijacking occurred, who was never actually a part of the assault.

You say that, as an antag, your RP skill drops to 2. There is already a large issue with Dionaea antags being, for the lack of a better term, "complete shitters". How can I know such a situation will not arise?

This is fair. I never really had any intention to use this character as an antag. I just like the idea of using him to benefit the station and add to RP. Maybe, in a couple of weeks, I'll give it a shot, but who knows.

Overall, the initial feel leaves me reluctant to grant you a whitelist. So let's talk for a little.

This is fine! If you have any other questions, please ask!

Note: Formatting is hell. Please forgive me.

[Killerhurtz]

Alrighty, so.

For the first point, I just want to say - be careful with that, as it can easily lead to terribleness.

As for the rest - it was quite interesting interpretations - especially where you took photographic memory from. Quite enjoyable. And I chuckled at the mention of the prisoners case.

Though I have more questions. If Branch was not part of the hijacking gestalt, what was it doing there?

(And what I meant by the "teaching it how the ship works" was that I thought Branch was part of the hijacking gestalt, and that they ended up teaching a hijacker how the ship worked)

But yes - be very careful as an antag. Talk to the mods/admins if necessary.

[Ornias]

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

If Branch was not part of the hijacking gestalt, what was it doing there?

The one thing that scares me about Dionaea- their grammar.

He was not one of the Dionae who attacked and hijacked the shuttle, but was part of the gestalt which hijacked it. That is to say- he was part of the "tribe" which hijacked it, not one of those who actually hijacked it themselves.

 

But yes - be very careful as an antag. Talk to the mods/admins if necessary.

Yeah, I already wuss out every time I get antag and message the admins anyway.

If you feel like anything isn't fitting with Dionaea standards or expectations, please let me know so I can change it. Thanks!

[Killerhurtz]

That makes sense, actually. I'll allow it, but be careful - I don't know if you had seen it, but Dionaea players are on a two-strike system right now.

So yes, approved. PM me if there's anything.