[Denied] ajstorey456's Head of Staff (Security) App

[ajstorey456]

BYOND key:ajstorey456

Character names:(in order from most to least played:) Cherish, Darion Muck, Garry Lent, Edia Yao, Kepper Dytes, Jericho Brigand

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How long have you been playing on Aurora?: Two weeks shy of three months now, and I've played as actively as I've had free time ever since I joined.

Why do you wish to be on the whitelist?: I feel like my character fits a Head of Security role, and I'd like to try my chops at being a crucial role to the station to open my experience up to more unique roleplay experiences and scenarios.

Why did you come to Aurora?: I was introduced to Space Station 13 by a friend who will not be named without the explanation of what the game was, just that it was a fun RPG with a steep learning curve. Aurora was his server of choice, and I haven't played a different server ever since I began.

Have you read the Aurora wiki on the head roles and qualifications you plan on playing?: Yes, and I believe I have the greatest understanding of my responsibility in the desired role as I can without actually experiencing the role first hand.

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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: Roleplaying is like writing a book where you create one character and decide their individual actions and reactions to a given scenario, depending on what platform you are roleplaying on. There's a narrative out of your control as a player, but your character may help drive that narrative, steering it toward a fun and interesting experience for you and everyone else involved. In Space Station, there is little exception to the basic definition of roleplay. You have a character hand molded by yourself with a unique name, story and personality to puppeteer through the events of the X Space Station. You should strive to make the round interesting for everyone, drive a narrative and develop your character, and that's before the Wizard shows up to destroy the Science wing.

What do you think the OOC purpose of a Head of Staff is, ingame?: A head of staff is a position of power. For the RD, CE, and CMO, they serve to make executive decisions and keep their respective departments in line so that there is a responsible figure behind everything a department does. For the HoS, HoP, and Captain, they serve to keep the station as a whole in order, whether it be organizing against crime and dealing punishments, making decisions for the betterment of the entire station and crew, or pulling the plug to end a greater evil. In short, they are game changers. They make the decisions that will ultimately steer the round in a direction for the good guys. Much like antagonists, their position of power should be used to drive an interesting story to each round and pilot the station in the right direction while they're at it.

What do you think the OOC responsibilities of Whitelisted players are to other players, and how would you strive to uphold them?: The responsibilities are similar to an antagonist's on any given round, in that their decisions should be reasonable and interesting. Of course, they have the added responsibility of duty. Being in the Command portion of the manifest for a reason, they are leaders and executives, and they should act as such. I would expect from a whitelisted Head of Staff member is a clear understanding of the game, roleplay, and its implications. They should also understand that SS13 is a game, people are here to have fun, and not to win, contrary to the "make this round extended" mentality of anyone with any power on the station seems to have. As a Head of Staff whitlisted or not, I strive to make every round I'm in as much more interesting and fun as I can muster through a plethora of unique characters and personalities with different mentalities and outlooks.

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

Character name: Garry Lent

Character age: 45

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

Garry Lent, under the employment of a Warden, serves Aurora as a warrant writer, weapon distributor, and doughnut eater. Much of the frequent security team already knows him to lounge around on his ass, give orders despite his lack of a position to do so, and butt his head into things. While he is a bit of a fat jerk, he does have good intentions. He stresses when a team is unorganized and busies himself making sure that all the officers are updating each other and keeping in touch. Other than that, he gets his work done as well as anyone else and has a comparatively level, though belligerent head on his shoulders.

He comes from a typical officer-type background, C student in his classes and university, caused a bit of trouble, and turned to the forces for his future. After a few years of service as a low-action trooper, he was eventually relieved of duty on medical leave for chronic back pain. His fellow squad mates diagnosed him correctly with the condition of "pussyitis." With a low GPA degree, some military service and nothing else to go off of, Lent decided he should pursue work as a peacekeeper, taking his time in a cadet-ship and becoming an officer on a civilian station in Tau Ceti. It only took a short 10 years working the small, desolate brig for him to realize that the boredom was going to kill him before he decided to transfer to a more interesting station offering work as security forces, the NSS Aurora, where he'd find himself employed at the paperwork deskjob of Brig Warden.

Under his gruff, lazy exterior, he's built up a fondness of the station and its crew, the unique characters he meets each shift at least making his days interesting. Between time enjoying the delicacies of frosted doughnuts and filling out paperwork, he's studied up on the duties required for a Head of Security and the implications of such. He's gotten some minor experience in barking orders when the officers didn't contest his nonexistent authority over them, and he believes he's got what it takes to really whip the security forces into shape so that they may lead peaceful and safe shifts.

What do you like about this character?: Garry is the character I play when I don't typically have a fun time interacting with the people online at the time as Cherish. With Garry, I can be gruff, direct, and clearly flawed, as is his character. He comes off as rude to the people he talks to, mostly the security officers on duty at the time, because he is. I like to think I've found a balance where my character isn't just an overt dickhead that makes the round difficult for anyone interacting with him though.

What do you dislike about this character?: Sometimes, his belligerence is not what the station needs, and when I OOC want him to move headstrong along with something, people IC get into arguments with him that I feel like make the players behind them not respect me OOCly. I also feel like he's my token lazy-made character, whereas I strive to be unique with each character, Lent is kind of a cookie-cutter authority figure. I try to make up for this in little aspects, like his brickheaded nature and sometimes cowardly responses to certain situations.

What do you think makes this character fit to be a head of staff?: Lent is old, has experience in a few different forces, and knows how to get his job done at the very least. He can assess a situation based on experience, keep a level head when commanding officers, and, at least he believes, lead a team. He feels a genuine bond to his officers, much like that of a soldier to his platoon, and he respects their safety and well being, something some other Hosses might overlook. I've played a round where he was Interim Head of Security, due to a general lack of staffing in both Command and Security, and he managed to coordinate someone safely out of a hostage situation without much cost to the station or harm to his officers. It was noncanon, of course, because the assailant was a Space Ninja, but I feel it's still a good example of how his character attempts to take control of a situation.

 

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Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions.

How would you rate your own roleplaying?: I'd say I'm on a higher scale, 7-8/10. That's the cliche answer, is 7, but I know I'm flawed enough to not be 9 or 10. In high action scenarios, I tend to panic OOC and let my character slip a little out of character and act braver or more direct than they tend to be otherwise. I've noticed this while playing Cherish most of all, and I've been really working to right this, but I can't say I've completely fixed it yet. It only shows in the most dire of situations, like Merc team firefight or Ninja beheading spree, but it's still there if I'm being honest with myself.

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Extra notes:

Some things to mention before they're brought up in a case against me.

1. Admin history: I've collected an embarrassing amount of notes and warnings over my time playing since I've joined, and for a good reason most of them, but I don't believe I've had any in a good amount of time and I try my best to improve on my choices when situations come out poorly. Also, please don't let the first handful of notes make an example of me as a player, especially my first one. I came to SS13 under the guidance of someone who played here before and they kind of urged me to do shitty things because I didn't understand the atmosphere of the server yet.

2.History with being salty man: I get salty pretty easy. It's usually only for 10 minutes and I'm over it by the time a new round comes by, but it's still worth mentioning. I've been working on this too, getting rid of the tendency to mash f1 upon becoming horizontal or explaining my woe-some story to all the people in dead chat who don't care, and I believe I've improved a bit than when I was a real cock about things.

If you believe I'm not fit to play a Head of Staff role just yet, let me know what you think of me as a player, my characters, and how I can improve to better fit the shoe. I won't hold any grudges on anyone who -1s because they genuinely believe I could be better as a player. Thank you.

[Resilynn]

I've seen cherish around, and I think you have the RP experience. I really, really hesitate to +1 anyone who has spent less than 6 months on the server. Basically, I'm not going to give a + or -, but I do think you have it in you. I'd practice as warden for awhile longer yet, and pour over regulations OBSESSIVELY. Perhaps you could try some in character training with an HoS, shadowing them.

[ajstorey456]

Thanks resilyn, I've actually been doing those things. As warden in my downtime, I read the regulations and spending time brigging people over all kinds of jargon is flexing my security muscles. When I can, I try to convince HoP or captain that I would make an ideal interim Hoss to try and get a feel for the responsibility. But I definitely was planning on cramming that regulations book in the three days down time.

[DrHobo]

Shit sorry man, was gonna do this but fell asleep and forgot I hadn't!

Now Darion Muck is a great grumpy old man, the kind that you can feel like your walking on egg shells with and not an outright antagonizing asshole! I would consider our relationship a bit like Farnsworth and Wernstrom from Futurama. I'd enjoy a bit more of the occassional fist shaking and bah-humbugging at each other like old foggies so we can form a bit more of a beautiful and professional nemesis-type relationship (not out-right war or total hostility, just friendly banter) but I understand it can be few and far between we're both on and about in science. Though it's good to have you in security as well, I feel safer with Cherish about.

Cherish I've seen about but haven't got to know that well since they became a ISD IPC (they were a borg before yeah?), they do their job though and are competent as far as I've seen. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Garry Lent as far as I'm aware so will have to enjoy a round with them soon! I love the concept of donut-munching lard ass which is a classic that's all too often missing from the flawless heroes that a lot of sec officers try to be. Be lazy, shake a vending machine, order takeaway delivered from the kitchen, never forget that you're a fat bastard. At the same time, become an encyclopedia for the regulations and bureaucracy, that's how someone like that rises in authority. ICly I imagine, Centcom just see's those forms afterall and when your name's appeared often (perhaps a few extra times when some other officer's leave Garry to do the paperwork and it get's filed as Garry being the hero) then other bureaucrats will take notice and will end up recommending promotion.

Pepperspray, the taser, donuts and the hailer are your best friends, don't let others get you down if that's your character. Flashes are generally overused and abused while pepperspray has a range to it rather than quickly waddling that few feet to get face-to-face. Don't pursue a perp over long distances and instead revert to breathless, panting over the radio, don't carry on some habits from Cherish as they are a machine and it doesn't sound like the direction you want to go with Lent. If you had the HoS's office, then make sure you've got your own cameras and a backup radio then work from that office, the briefing room and the good ol' PDA. You'd be able to call people there and the less walking and running you do, maintains that chubbiness for your character. Emote the sucking of frosting off your fat fingers, and brushing sugar off your belly, don't be afraid to belch or lean to pass some gas even on your own, well especially if your on your own as it helps the character be less shallow (never know who's actually watching you but I'm sure they'll have a laugh if you're scratching your ass and adjusting your chair in your office). I dunno I'm just shooting the breeze but I hope you find atleast some of this as useful advice.

I've heard there were issues when you've been antag'ing or something though that seems like a fair while ago, but as you've acknowledged that you can lose character and be a bit braver which I totally understand, that panic OOC can really get the heart going even for a 2D text-heavy spess game! I think it's ok to bitch in ghost chat about what happened (so long as it's not used for metagaming and just forgotten about) whether you died in an interesting way or feel hard done by but don't let it get to you unless it was extremely and needlessly awful, harder said that done but I do think OOC you might very well be a decent guy. Overall I'm heavy leaning on the plus, but want to atleast see you better in action in security.

[ajstorey456]

Thank you DrHobo! Your response actually brightened my morning a bit. I admittedly don't play Science often anymore because it got so boring for me as was my main for a while, but I'll come back to it once I finish my rounds with all the other departments!

As for your suggestions with Lent, I like them a lot! I'll use them when molding him into what he's going to turn out to be. I've been playing him every chance there's a Warden slot and Cherish otherwise, so I hope you get to see my Sec play a little more.

[Coalf]

After an extensive debate in the whitelist chat and after review of everything.

Your request for a Head of Staff whitelist has been denied.

While the feedback on this app is positive and we've noticed recent improvement we would first like to see if this improvement is consistent over longer period of time.

We do hope you try again for this whitelist application later, minimum one month from now.

Closing and archiving.