[Accepted] Jlaflair - Head of Staff Application

[Hayagami]

BYOND key: Jlaflair

Character names: Celeste Hawkins

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Very off and on for a few months, until recently.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I have an abundance of time due a physical disability and the desire to play in these most absorbing of roles, both for the benefit of distraction from my real life issues and because I simply find them to be interesting. I have access to all non-whitelisted roles, but they're a bit dry for me now, generally speaking. I'd like to broaden my horizons.

Why did you come to Aurora?: Role-playing is everything to me. If a server doesn't enforce role-playing, then it simply lacks that which I crave. Aurora is among those populated servers which provide what I want, and so that's why I initially came. I've remained due to the large populace and the quality of role-play.

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yes.

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

Give a definition of what you think roleplay is, and should be about: By my own definition, role-playing is all about slipping outside of your real life self to portray a completely different person. It's an escape from your own boundaries into the identity of someone in another place and time. When you're role-playing, you're acting out the part of someone born of your fantasies, be they similar to you or very much different. It offers an opportunity to explore parts of yourself you otherwise wouldn't, much like acting in real life. Role-playing is also a wonderful cooperative effort between the players to tell a collective story, in this case of the ongoing events faced by a space station. One's part may not be large, but one can still be connected to the larger role-playing effort and thus contribute to that tapestry.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: Heads of Staff are responsible for the oversight of their individual departments, not just in character, but also out of character. From an OOC standpoint, the staff head has access to some very powerful mechanics, and with that comes the obligation of being responsible about their use. Take advantage of these mechanics when it's appropriate and will enhance the experience for the majority of players, but by no means should a head every frivolously change the course of the round. Half of that purpose is all about being the responsible adult.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: A staff head is looked to as a figure of OOC leadership. Players will expect this character to provide them with direction, and I feel that a head should do their best to ensure that everyone is included and - if possible - involved in what's going on. They deserve to be a part of the overall role-playing experience, and heads have the potential ability to get them there. They should also be accessible and friendly on an OOC basis, communicating politely and being welcoming of new and old players alike.

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Please pick one of your characters for this section, and provide well articulated responses to the following questions.

Character name: Celeste Hawkins

Character age: 45

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs): Celeste was born on a space station in the Sol system and, in truth, has never really known a great deal with respect to living a planetary life. Her family lived for the purpose of exploring space in all its potential, and it was simply assumed that she'd be a part of that. Indeed, she was, as she entered into NanoTrasen's service at age eighteen. She's remained with the corporation ever since, working in security as one of its more adept individuals with respect to combat. Her term of service was briefly interrupted when, during a biohazard incident aboard a starship, she was exposed to an as yet little understood disease. It caused the rapid necrosis of much of her body, and in order to save her, medical staff elected to preserve her mind within a fully prosthetic body.

In the time since, Celeste has adapted well to her new existence, though she holds on to what belongings she can as connections to her humanity. If anything, the 'loss' has made her a more calculating and efficient officer, more like the machine shell than she'd care to admit. However, that's of little consequence to NanoTrasen, which has viewed her as both an advancing officer and an asset in terms of what her body is uniquely capable of. Perhaps in order to keep her content, and most certainly to keep her in their service, they elected to offer her a position as Head of Security or an Internal Affairs Agent at her choosing. Celeste is partly pleased, and partly concerned about getting in even deeper with the corporation which made her what she is today. What other purpose did she have, though, truly?

What do you like about this character?: I've always been a fan of the concept of fully prosthetic bodies since the old days of seeing Ghost in the Shell in the theaters. That's one of those aspects of Celeste I like a great deal. I also appreciate her attitude, at once calm and confident, and then calculating and efficient as stated above. It's a psychological war of sorts which she wages against herself, the human mind versus the machine shell in all their advantages and differences.

What do you dislike about this character?: I feel it's best to be honest, rather than to try and BS my way through this question, so I'll give you the honest answer. I don't really have anything to provide here. When I write a character, it's someone who I like for all of their merits and all of their flaws (and I believe any sentient being has both). If there were something I disliked about them, I wouldn't play them. What I create is always something I like and want to play, so there's really nothing I could say that I dislike.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Celeste is forty-five years of age and has been serving with NanoTrasen since she was eighteen. This gives her a broad range of experience to draw upon in a head of staff position. She has always exhibited the ability to keep a calm and collected head in a crisis, and at the same time, to make the hard choices which sometimes need to be made for the good of the majority - even if it means sacrificing a life. Some might consider her to be more the assertive and "take it head on" sort than other heads of staff, but this is a result of a lifetime spent doing security work. When necessary, she can certainly reel it in and exercise diplomacy. Lastly, she's viewed as an asset by NanoTrasen due to her fully prosthetic body, weighing its advantages to be superior to its vulnerabilities. There are certain ways she might be able to respond in a crisis which a human alternative wouldn't be able to offer.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: I'd generously rate myself as a 9/10. To provide context, I am 32 years of age and began role-playing before I was even ten years old, when I discovered my first AD&D 2nd Edition rulebook. I guess you could say I was an early nerd. I've since explored various pen and paper settings which I still play. The internet came along, and with it, I discovered chatroom based roleplaying followed by the more formalized mechanics and roleplay of text-based games called MUDs/MUSHes (I still play these to this day). Prior to my disability, I also worked in the field of recording voiceovers, which by definition requires that one be familiar with acting. Since my disability, I've spent every day of the last many years role-playing as a means to distract myself from boredom and unresolved pain. This has helped me to refine my writing skills quite a bit. That said, 9/10 because I feel there's always room for improvement and I am bound to make the occasional error in judgment or otherwise commit a mistake. I'm only human!

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Extra notes: Due to my real life situation, the one bonus I can offer to providing me with head of staff access is the time I can offer. I sleep very little, I'm incapable of working, and the laptop is basically glued to me as a source of sanity. I can play a lot, and I'm very attentive to doing my best in play and in respecting the enjoyment of other players. Many of you aren't likely to know me, admittedly, but I hope that the above gives you a good picture of my qualifications and vision for how I'd tackle these important roles.

[Fire and Glory]

Um.

Is Celeste, mechanically in-game, a human?

[Hayagami]

Um.

Is Celeste, mechanically in-game, a human?

 

Mechanically, yes, a human. However, she has all available prosthetics.

[Fire and Glory]

That is rather...iffy, and probably liable to make you end up butting heads with administration staff sooner or later.

IPC whitelists give you access to humanoid robots with and without human-like skin, and although the brain itself is also robotic, you're obviously willing to push the boundaries of what shows up in-game and what can be interpreted.

I'd advise talking to Cake (who is the synthetic lore-person and whose jurisdiction characters like this would fall under) about full-body prosthetics and whether pretending about that sort of thing would or wouldn't be acceptable in-game, as well as making an IPC whitelist for such a character like this.

For the head application here, I would advise either submitting a different character or withdrawing it for now.

[Hayagami]

An IPC is an entirely different sort of being without a human brain/mind. I don't really see the correlation. So far as I am aware, there is no standing rule prohibiting a character from taking every prosthetic/having a fully prosthetic body.

That said, is there any issue with any other part of the application? I can submit someone else if absolutely necessary, but I believe the character to be written sensibly and well.

[Alberyk]

As Fire said, fully prosthetic bodies are not a thing in our code/universe so far. You can have all limbs as robotic ones, but, not a head or torso, so you should re-work said character.

[Fire and Glory]

An IPC is an entirely different sort of being without a human brain/mind. I don't really see the correlation. So far as I am aware, there is no standing rule prohibiting a character from taking every prosthetic/having a fully prosthetic body.

Keep in mind that such a character doesn't have a fully prosthetic body, mechanics-wise they can still bleed if they're stabbed in the chest or head, they can still be poisoned, they need oxygen, and so on. Playing an IPC and pretending it's a full-body-prosthesis would be just as accurate (or in my opinion, even more so) as playing a human with every organ and limb turned into a prosthetic and pretending it's a full-body-prosthesis.

I don't really have too much to comment on the rest of the application, it doesn't seem egregiously bad, personally I don't think Nanotrasen would really bribe someone with the position of leading their personnel for the sake of just keeping them around, but that's more of a 'me' thing and not really something I can weigh against the application.

While the character could plausibly (although don't quote me on that) exist in the world (we have cyborgs which are simply brains controlling mechanical contraptions, after all.), how you're currently playing them doesn't really do it enough justice to not cause issues.

[CakeIsOssim]

...

 

This was the agreed upon outcome for the continuation of the application process. So, I fully endorse this application under the circumstances. Rolling with as many prosthetics as you can possibly spawn with works for me, and I'm sure it will be taken well, as it's probably not the first time anyone has ever played a character with a ton of robotic parts.

[Hayagami]

I spoke with Cake, and Cake spoke with other administrators in turn about my concept. Given that I have a full endorsement, I will be maintaining my application as-is and continue to request whitelisting for head of staff positions. Thank you!

[Hayagami]

I'm still looking for feedback on my application to help the staff come to a decision, please!

For those concerned, you will note in my last post that Cake and administrators considered the character concept submitted and decided to fully endorse it, as far as the character being fully (or mostly) prosthetic.

With that having been covered so thoroughly already, I would appreciate any opinions on the other merits or flaws of the application, please! I also have permission to ask once per round, but I'd prefer not to have to bother people like that. I've done my best to convey that these roles demand the utmost in terms of good judgement and maturity, and that I have no interest in abusing their power.

Thanks, all!

[TishinaStalker]

Application accepted.