[Accepted] ReadThisNamePlz's Head of Staff Application

[ReadThisNamePlz]

BYOND key: ReadThisNamePlz

Character Names:Karson Adams, Sydney Grace, Cheyanna Davis,

Charles Haynes, Olivia Catherina, Jonathan Aleman, Anthony Lewis,

Dakota Faqua, Athena Palmer.

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Maybe three to four months? I haven't kept track really.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I wish to be on the whitelist to further my enjoyment of Aurora, I love this game and the server, but I feel like there is more to it that I'm missing out on, I.E a Head of Staff position.

Why did you come to Aurora?: Honestly, it was an accident. I meant to join paradise, then I stayed for a shift and just fell in love with it.

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: To me, role-play allows you to be something that you aren't, without any consequences. You can go in depth with a background story, or make a very vague one and build on of it from then on. I think roleplay should be about having fun, It should be something you can enjoy even when you're having a bad day. An escape, if you will.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: A head of staff is meant to lead, they are leaders of their departments, or in the captains case. Leaders of the whole station,

the crew looks to them for answers. They are meant to provide the crew with a direction, whether its a correct or incorrect direction is determined by the players themselves. They need to mentor their new department members, as well as delegate responsibility to other more experienced department members so they can succeed and eventually reach the same level as the Head of Staff.[

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: The responsibilities of a Whitelisted player is to set an example of the player that the unwhitelisted players should be. The way they need to act in order to get to the same level as the whitelisted player. The whitelisted player is responsible in teaching others as well, if you are a head of staff you need to teach the new members of your department.

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

Character name: Olivia Catherina

Character age: 36

Please provide a short biography of this character (approx 2 paragraphs):

Olivia was born into a middle class family on earth that lived in the North American Federation in the megacity of Los Angeles. She was born with no siblings, she was treated well up until she was about six years old. Her parents ended up divorcing because her father cheated on her mother. The divorce took a toll on her mother. Olivia and her mother became homeless because her mother lacked any education passed the eleventh grade of highschool. They lived in a car for sometime until her mother could find some way to make money to support Olivia. The mother eventually turned to drugs because of a deep depression that developed. She spent every penny she had on drugs each time she made money. This eventually led to an accidental overdose, killing her while Olivia watched.

Child services then delegated custody of Olivia to her father Robert Catherina. Her father had become very abusive since the time she had last seen him due to his own depression feeling as if the divorce was his fault, which led to alcoholism and drug abuse. , he beat her every day, sometimes more than once. Her new mother wasn't any better, her name was Katie Catherina. She was just as abusive, not because of alcohol or drugs, but just because she came from a different mother. She blamed Olivia for the alcoholism her father faced as well as the drug abuse. Olivia became very depressed from all of this, blaming herself for the divorce, for her fathers alcohol and drug abuse, and for Katie's hate towards her. At the age of twelve she swore to herself that she would never do drugs, and kept to it. Her father and step mothers abuse only became more frequent, and more painful as time progressed. They began to verbally abuse her as well. The verbal and physical abuse led to Olivia attempting suicide at the age of fourteen, she was beat senseless for trying and locked away in a hospital for roughly ten to twelve days. All of these events, all of the abuse eventually led to Olivia running away at the age of seventeen and meeting a man named Jonathan Aleman, who she eventually married around the age of eighteen. Jonathan turned out to be just like her father. When she turned the age of twenty four, she decided to look for a job so she could eventually leave Jonathan and support her two kids that she had since she and Johnathan had met. She met with a NanoTrasen representative who eventually talked her into becoming a security team member for the NSS Redemption. She accepted and was sent to the security academy, eventually passing it and becoming a cadet on the Redemption. After about a year and a few speed bumps she finally made Security Officer and was transferred to the NSS Aurora where she became Warden, although she'd go on shift as a officer at times to blow off steam.

While she was in the academy and on the Redemption, a divorce was filed by her husband, she lost custody of the kids in the divorce and majority of everything she owned. To this day she is still fighting for custody.

What do you like about this character?: I like her attitude, I like that she doesn't stop when she is needed. She is persistent, and diligent, she doesn't give up easily and cares about everyone's well being over her own. She continues to press on, even when the odds are against her. She's friendly and caring, but can be vicious if it's required.

What do you dislike about this character?: I think my biggest issue is how she handles herself in the field, she prefers to work alone instead of working with other officers. And when she is working with someone else she feels bad or responsible if something happens to the person she's working with. She's too hard on herself, and she's not always the smartest. But she's improving on a lot of this.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: I think her dedication to the crew and it's safety would be the main reason. Again, she doesn't give up, she's kind and caring when she needs to be but can be vicious if the time calls for it. She doesn't give up easily, she prefers to do things by the book, but can improvise it need be. And she isn't biased towards anyone. She treats everyone fair, including the criminals in her custody.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: on a scale of 1 - 10, maybe a 7.6? or an 8. I have things I can improve on for sure, there are a lot of issues with my characters, like Syndey Grace was my first main character I had ever played on, and she was retarded until I started to learn,

and adapt to aurora. Olivia has her moments of idiocy, as we all do. Mostly because sometimes I get lost in the confusion of what's going on around station.

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Extra notes:

Edited October 9, 2017 by Guest

[Faris]

Please fix the bold aspects of this post. It's quite painful to read.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Please fix the bold aspects of this post. It's quite painful to read.

Fixed.

[sdtwbaj]

Olivia's a gucci character, and has the strong roleplay potential. That, and the way she can sort of step up as Warden really lends her to Head of Staff material.

+1

[Faris]

Please fix the bold aspects of this post. It's quite painful to read.

Fixed.

 

You're supposed to bold the headers.

 

BYOND key: ReadThisNamePlz

 

An example.

[alexpkeaton]

+1, Olivia is professional, capable and organized as a Warden/officer. While not relevant to being a head of staff, her robustness as an antag has also greatly improved in the one month I have played alongside Olivia, she is certainly familiar with how to play those roles appropriately. She really puts a lot into her RP and is enjoyable to play with.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Please fix the bold aspects of this post. It's quite painful to read.

Fixed.

 

You're supposed to bold the headers.

 

BYOND key: ReadThisNamePlz

 

An example.

okay. nooooow it's fixed. My apologies.

[JKJudgeX]

I've RP'ed extensively with most of these characters and had nothing but positive experiences doing so, and having read this application, I have to offer a very strong +1.

[Pisest]

I've had nothing but positive things to say about the characters this person has played in which she has interacted with me. So far, they seem to know their place.

[TheSleepyCatmom]

+1, looks formal and ICly good characters from wht I've seen.

[hivefleetchicken]

-1 I've seen Olivia take the Captain's ID as a non-head of staff crew role like... 4 times now, saying she intends to "secure" it whenever there's an emergency. I really don't like this kind of play, please don't rush for common antag-goal-items when things go to shit to preemptively prevent them from succeeding.

I also witness you play antags as passive roles dedicated to informing the crew of what antags are, i.e. you get auto-linged halfway into the round and then go to the HOS saying, "Here's what's going on there's shapeshifters and you need to stop them", etc. It can be very obnoxious for other antags and doesn't really add anything to the round except an excuse for sec to win by any means.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

-1 I've seen Olivia take the Captain's ID as a non-head of staff crew role like... 4 times now, saying she intends to "secure" it whenever there's an emergency. I really don't like this kind of play, please don't rush for common antag-goal-items when things go to shit to preemptively prevent them from succeeding.

I also witness you play antags as passive roles dedicated to informing the crew of what antags are, i.e. you get auto-linged halfway into the round and then go to the HOS saying, "Here's what's going on there's shapeshifters and you need to stop them", etc. It can be very obnoxious for other antags and doesn't really add anything to the round except an excuse for sec to win by any means.

 

I'll keep this in mind, the passive ling was an experiment that I cleared with staff. Never doing that again, it was dumb. Captains ID thing was when I was newer, stopped doing it. I actually got input on that before and that's why I stopped. I appreciate your criticism and I will certainly improve on this. Thank you!

[hivefleetchicken]

Since you testify you're willing to improve, I'm retracting the -support. Thanks for the quick response, looks like your odds are good so enjoy the promotion.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Since you testify you're willing to improve, I'm retracting the -support. Thanks for the quick response, looks like your odds are good so enjoy the promotion.

 

<3

[Brutishcrab51]

I've been waiting a little while to get around to this application, and I'll toss my two cents in now.

I've had quite a bit of interaction with ReadThisNamePlz's characters. Olivia Catherina, namely, and I'd like to say, they've definitely done work improving in an RP aspect. (S?)he can definitely work well as a Head of Staff, and if she can't, there's procedures in place to deal with any issues appropriately.

+1.

[DatBerry]

Olivia is still a green horn, and I've recently seen a pretty red flag.

That round was a mercenary round or crossfire round, there were 4 or so armed individuals who broke into the bridge, all of security, including warden olivia was on scene, but all of them, besides the captain were in standard gear which is not even close to enough to deal with the assault rifles and energy carbines the individuals have, instead of retreating to gear the officers, they stayed, I guess this part can be partially blamed on the captain, but then when the fight started they were EMP'd, and their laser pistol was emptied, they failed to notice their weapon was out of charge, and instead of attempting a retreat, stayed in the area and along with the rest of security, all perished.

heads of staff are expected to lead with competence, if this is your strategy to handling armed intruders rounds under your command will be terrible.

I'm going to have to go against this whitelist for now. -1

[ReadThisNamePlz]

Olivia is still a green horn, and I've recently seen a pretty red flag.

That round was a mercenary round or crossfire round, there were 4 or so armed individuals who broke into the bridge, all of security, including warden olivia was on scene, but all of them, besides the captain were in standard gear which is not even close to enough to deal with the assault rifles and energy carbines the individuals have, instead of retreating to gear the officers, they stayed, I guess this part can be partially blamed on the captain, but then when the fight started they were EMP'd, and their laser pistol was emptied, they failed to notice their weapon was out of charge, and instead of attempting a retreat, stayed in the area and along with the rest of security, all perished.

heads of staff are expected to lead with competence, if this is your strategy to handling armed intruders rounds under your command will be terrible.

I'm going to have to go against this whitelist for now. -1

For the mercs, Olivia had never handled something like this. In fact if you were around to see the RP prior with Kalren, she was asking advice on what to do about the possible intruders, prior to that point in time on the bridge. She was on the bridge expecting to meet with the captain ((if i remember correctly)). She didn't expect to meet people stealing light bulbs, and all that. Infact I was mid text of saying "Alright head back to security" to everyone before the captain opened fire and all that. I did not plan to stay there, and we couldn't retreat because no one had command access besides the captain.

But I do appreciate your feedback, I will certainly try to improve on this. Appreciate it! [mention]DatBerry[/mention]

[JKJudgeX]

I will take responsibility as Captain for precipitating that engagement...

A couple of things:

1) I am not sure how or why so many people without command access were on the bridge and "trapped" in this way, this was the situation as I arrived on the bridge, I heard there were intruders as I awoke from cryo, stopped by the brig, grabbed a shotgun and some armor, and had very little other info to go on by the time I got there.

2) I saw that my office had already been ransacked, and the mercs were being highly belligerent, rejecting my first couple of attempts to parlay with rudeness.

3) They began to encircle me, at which point I opted to open fire, thinking that underprepped security would use this opportunity to retreat and recoup, I didn't see how they got in, so it hadn't really occurred to me that they were "trapped". I thought maybe the AI was watching. Unfortunately, there was no escape for sec, and they were all killed with me.

I feel bad about how it went down, I could have maybe handled it better (though I'm about 90% sure I started firing only a second or two before gunfire would have erupted anyway with similar result), I acknowledge that my tactics here were not the best (I probably should have tried to run away and open the airlocks for sec once I figured out talking wasn't really an option, maybe?).

I am only making this post because I don't see how Olivia was really at fault here. I don't think she really had command authority. If we want to say "bad call" on an existing command member (me) who didn't de-escalate the situation properly, that's fine, but, for someone sub-command, unable to operate related airlocks or alert levels to be held back from ever getting that level of command based on this incident I disagree with that and feel more than 50% responsible. It shouldn't be my fault that Olivia can't be HoS because of my potentially bad call.

Had she been HoS at the time, she could have raised the alert level, properly equipped security to deal with the intruders, or even potentially levied for ERT call with any other heads. Using what she had, and it being discovered to be inadequate by venue of my own goof is no mark against her as it should be for anyone else.

[DatBerry]

For the mercs, Olivia had never handled something like this. In fact if you were around to see the RP prior with Kalren, she was asking advice on what to do about the possible intruders, prior to that point in time on the bridge. She was on the bridge expecting to meet with the captain ((if i remember correctly)). She didn't expect to meet people stealing light bulbs, and all that. Infact I was mid text of saying "Alright head back to security" to everyone before the captain opened fire and all that. I did not plan to stay there, and we couldn't retreat because no one had command access besides the captain.

But I do appreciate your feedback, I will certainly try to improve on this. Appreciate it!

 

a Head of Security has 10 years of experience in the field, he isn't some mall security manager, if Olivia has no idea how to deal with armed intruders then they're still too inexperienced to commandeer the ISD. That aside, your replies to my and other people's criticism is more than enough for me to +1 this app, though I still strongly recommend playing more in security before going as a full head of security, try to become interim HoS during eventful rounds, and get more experience with the management side of security.

 

snip

 

Security entered via the AI, they could've asked in the worse case scenario for the AI to open so they can go get geared up, even if it meant marooning the captain with the mercs, I understand that they wanted to back their captain up, but even when they stayed they could neither protect you nor escape.

now I understand this is mostly your fault*, but security should also consider the situation and if command is taking them on a suicide mission, disengage and reassess the situation.

The reason I partially blame Olivia is because they were a warden, not an officer. their duties revolve around the brig, prisoners and weapon hand out, and responding to issues is secondary, and this case they should've paid more attention to their role and how their death could mean security can't access the weapons, duties which a HoS should worry about too. a HoS that arms themselves and rush into an incident and die while their officers are ill equiped/lacking instructions is bad. you should be prepared for this before taking on the job.

*:

 

the situation was pretty funny to be honest, and would've worked if security knew your intentions of buying them time, I think they assumed you spear headed the attack, as this is what we thought in deadchat too at the time.

suggestions for next time:

• turn on sprint
  
• harm intent and point blank with the shotgun
  
• tell security to GTFO a second before the attack
  
• flee in the direction of security, in that case their combat width was 3 tiles, and only 3 could shoot in the direction of the bridge entrance/security, in your case you sat in the middle where the two mercs in the back shot while the other two shot at security, giving them full lines of sight
  

the only negative in the incident was that security got almost completely destroyed there before they could put up a real fight.

now this is all spoiler'd because it's not related to the whitelist

 

 

Tl;Dr: +1 but I suggest playing more as an interim HoS as both you and Olivia are still too inexperienced with security to lead it.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

For the mercs, Olivia had never handled something like this. In fact if you were around to see the RP prior with Kalren, she was asking advice on what to do about the possible intruders, prior to that point in time on the bridge. She was on the bridge expecting to meet with the captain ((if i remember correctly)). She didn't expect to meet people stealing light bulbs, and all that. Infact I was mid text of saying "Alright head back to security" to everyone before the captain opened fire and all that. I did not plan to stay there, and we couldn't retreat because no one had command access besides the captain.

But I do appreciate your feedback, I will certainly try to improve on this. Appreciate it!

 

a Head of Security has 10 years of experience in the field, he isn't some mall security manager, if Olivia has no idea how to deal with armed intruders then they're still too inexperienced to commandeer the ISD. That aside, your replies to my and other people's criticism is more than enough for me to +1 this app, though I still strongly recommend playing more in security before going as a full head of security, try to become interim HoS during eventful rounds, and get more experience with the management side of security.

 

snip

 

Security entered via the AI, they could've asked in the worse case scenario for the AI to open so they can go get geared up, even if it meant marooning the captain with the mercs, I understand that they wanted to back their captain up, but even when they stayed they could neither protect you nor escape.

now I understand this is mostly your fault*, but security should also consider the situation and if command is taking them on a suicide mission, disengage and reassess the situation.

The reason I partially blame Olivia is because they were a warden, not an officer. their duties revolve around the brig, prisoners and weapon hand out, and responding to issues is secondary, and this case they should've paid more attention to their role and how their death could mean security can't access the weapons, duties which a HoS should worry about too. a HoS that arms themselves and rush into an incident and die while their officers are ill equiped/lacking instructions is bad. you should be prepared for this before taking on the job.

*:

 

the situation was pretty funny to be honest, and would've worked if security knew your intentions of buying them time, I think they assumed you spear headed the attack, as this is what we thought in deadchat too at the time.

suggestions for next time:

• turn on sprint
  
• harm intent and point blank with the shotgun
  
• tell security to GTFO a second before the attack
  
• flee in the direction of security, in that case their combat width was 3 tiles, and only 3 could shoot in the direction of the bridge entrance/security, in your case you sat in the middle where the two mercs in the back shot while the other two shot at security, giving them full lines of sight
  

the only negative in the incident was that security got almost completely destroyed there before they could put up a real fight.

now this is all spoiler'd because it's not related to the whitelist

 

 

Tl;Dr: +1 but I suggest playing more as an interim HoS as both you and Olivia are still too inexperienced with security to lead it.

 

I've been trying to get HoS in, but each time I ask, the HoP usually on duty gives me the "We don't need one" and such. But I will do my best to continue!

I appreciate the +1, I'll certainly work harder on my Security skills. Much appreciated.

[JKJudgeX]

**

Yeah, it was a funny situation. I wasn't given a full rundown of how bad the situation was beforehand or I probably would have just ordered security back to the brig to arm up. I was surprised when I got to command to see most of security already inside. I was under the impression that perhaps they had already geared up some and had gone to fight to begin with, but when I got there I realized that the disk, spare id, and everything was already forfeit, and the mercs were, in my assessment, getting ready to start shooting in a few seconds anyway because they moved in behind me while I was talking after I had positioned myself to face them, and all already had guns showing. I kinda figured I was dead and we were doomed when I saw sec pull tasers. Figured I'd try to at least take one with me, but, barely landed any shotgun fire due to having to not hit my own guys, and pretty sweet evasive moves by a couple of the mercs.

Good suggestions though. Sometimes kinda hard to think of exactly what to do when directly in the situation. I thought of a bunch of better moves I could have made afterwards and was like "damn". I'm still learning, even after all this time.

I joined late and made a couple of bad calls based on bad assumptions. Live and learn.

 

[Nikov]

-1.

I don't think you answered the questions regarding the meaning of roleplaying and the OOC obligations of a head of staff to my satisfaction.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

-1.

I don't think you answered the questions regarding the meaning of roleplaying and the OOC obligations of a head of staff to my satisfaction.

 

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. This is my first application, is there anything I can add to that would make it more appealing to you? Maybe go farther into depth?

[Coalf]

It's been decided that this application will remain open for another week to give the player a chance to gather more feedback and reply to existing raised issues.

We'll also use this time to gather more information about your playstyle and character itself.

[ReadThisNamePlz]

It's been decided that this application will remain open for another week to give the player a chance to gather more feedback and reply to existing raised issues.

We'll also use this time to gather more information about your playstyle and character itself.

 

Sweet. Thank you! I think I just need to go more in depth on a few of the questions.