bostonthebear - Synthetic Application

Synthetic Application - bostonthebear

What is your BYOND key?

bostonthebear

What is your Discord ID?

hgoblin

Do you usually play a specific character? If so, who?

Allie ‘Son’ Trovato, Chlorine Mallery

What whitelist applications have you previously completed?

Mentor/SEA Whitelist

Synthetic Info:

Name of the Synth Character you wish to play:

Komaki

What is your Synthetic’s Personality?

“Remember, Young sprout. If you cannot honor yourself, how can you expect to honor your foes?”

The Komaki series are a less popular, more expensive, and newer rendition of self defense teacher synthetics. Differentiating from other synthetic models that may focus on just boxing or wrestling, Komaki is designed for a wide range of martial and weapon arts, most prominently in the Asian area on Earth. Another difference that Komaki holds is that his random personalities are more defining, and play a crucial role in how they train their students, and what exactly they train. While one Komaki may be focused on the physical side, which can already differ between martial or sword, another may hold greater interest in the mental side of training.

Komaki 13-B/M, the particular Komaki model I’ll be playing, holds a strong emphasis on honor in his training. His ‘belief’ in honor is insistent on how well a person is in tune with their true self. In programming, this simply means he is more likely to ask open ended questions and less likely to make his own conclusions on trivial matters. Past that, Komaki takes on the visuals and mannerisms of a wise sensei from an old 70’s samurai movie, with greyed hair, long beard, and sleek wrinkled features. He always speaks wistfully, his words ranging somewhere between a sage and wise poet and genuinely unsolvable riddles.

Because of his ‘beliefs’ or code, his view on if people are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depends on his judge on their honor, which itself is dependent on lying, specific actions unbecoming of that person, or a breakage of that person’s stored algorithm. This is of course overshadowed by his AI directives and marine law, but past that, he is completely neutral to ethical matters, and only will intervene in situations if he believes the person is at risk of losing their honor. He sees himself as a guide or mentor for people to achieve higher honor, and is happy to help those who require it through MFLC sessions.
This is not to say that he will always ask questions about every single thing a marine or civilian does to try and garner their honor level, or attempt to visualize honor, as he has some understanding that he is simply a machine, and his gauge on honor can only be trusted through long MFLC sessions, which build upon that persons stored algorithm. This is highlighted between MFLC sessions as he normally defaults to simply undertaking tasks and things assigned to him by command or ARES, or entering a false (and rather creepy) ‘meditation’ state, which is used to conserve power if nothing is assigned.

Finally, although Komaki is fully trained in pretty much all types of self defense, and is extremely fast to keep up with his knowledge, he is extremely weak due to being a Gen 3 synthetic. This means his self preservation law is more impactful, and he is extremely hesitant to start or partake in fights. The number one thing Komaki always tells his non-military students is to always comply or flee from an attacker and to use self defense as a last resort, which Komaki himself takes to his binary heart.

How will they react to the different ranks of the USCM, what would they talk about in a one on one conversation? What are their interests? What is an advertisement logline that could be written for them?

Komaki is one of the few synthetics to be directly sold to the marines. This differs slightly from his civilian models, in which they are reprogrammed to refer to ranks differently, and to completely adhere to marine law. Normally, they refer to his students as “Young sprout/bud/ox/koi,” or simply “my student.” For those on the same rank or higher, he prefixes or suffixes their name with Sensei. This has been changed in his code, as his students are replaced with non-commissioned personnel between E-1 and E-5, with all others except SEA’s being referred to as their rank instead of ‘Sensei’. SEA’s are still referred to as ‘Sensei’ as that’s badass.

“Show courage, young sprout. What is your question?”
As Komaki is an MFLC advisor, he likes taking counseling sessions with the lower ranks of marines, and will always put aside time to better one of his students. In these sessions, Komaki would mostly let their student take the initiative, and simply be a wall of wisdom to bounce off of. Komaki, as it is their quirk, would also never turn down the chance to spar with marines, and I am prepared to create an in game document that must be signed by the aCO or the CMP or ARES in order to do it. I’m unsure how that would work however, if it is even possible, and would like clarification before I commit to it.
Besides that, although his personality still lingers, Komaki is able to dial back his wise words to become more robotic when he is not actively helping someone. This is normally seen in frontline combat, talking to higher ranks, or where RP isn’t really viable, in which case Komaki will resort to using blunt answers instead of more questions.
Finally, Komaki always ends a conversation with a small quip, which always starts with “Remember, Young sprout…” I am prepared to write at least 100 words of pick-say with different honorable remarks for the benefit of roleplay.

Because there is no other way to include this, I wanted to include a small bit about preds. I understand that synths and preds are not to interact, and I feel as if this is especially prevalent for Komaki due to his take on honor. If a pred were to ever try to interact with me, or if it was ever completely necessary for me to interact with a pred, I would first LOOC that my character talks about honor and that it is different from a predators honor code to not cause confusion.

As Komaki can be sold directly to civilians or military, I envision two different taglines.
Civilian, with his head rotated slightly to look towards the distance: The new Komaki Sensei. Let his pool of wisdom propel your fighting style and your metal fortitude to the top.
Military, with three different segments each showcasing what the corresponding word says: The Komaki Synthetic. Mentor, Protector, Fighter.

Why do you want to be a synthetic/why should we whitelist you?

So, its no secret I am very in love with the “wise old samurai” bit, and I have, for a while, wanted to make a synthetic application to become this bit. I understand that this entire synthetic might seem like a joke one, or one I am not prepared to roleplay correctly, which is why I have written so much to confirm that I am 100% willing to roleplay this seriously.
Although becoming this bit is the main driver, I still do enjoy the prospect of a synthetic, and are in agreement with the synthetics rapid de-supporting that’s taking place, since I think the prospects of RP that synthetics promise is wholey underused, and deserves to be more in the spotlight of their playstyles. I also intend to fill the gap in low pop synths too, to try and instigate more roleplay in a time zone that desperately needs it.

As I am already a mentor, I chose to go towards that direction as the synth. Although one might say that it would be tiring to continue this bit for extended periods of time, or to keep helping marines in line with my quirk and personality, I don’t think its the case.
Firstly, if I ever feel burnt out from roleplaying as the Sensei, I can simply just wait a few rounds before joining in as a synthetic again, which is what most people already do. Although this runs the risk of me losing interest in the honorable sensei bit, I don’t think that is going to happen for a while, especially as I still have at least 3 samurai games to go through, as well as replaying all of them again to get different endings.
Secondly, I still enjoy playing SEA, even if I don’t play it as much as I use to, because teaching marines and watching them flourish and grow is such a satisfying experience to me. Non mentors will never know the joy of waving at your newly trained Private as he gets onto the Alamo with a 10% survival rate, and I want to extend that experience to my synthetic character too.

What is your most memorable interaction with a synthetic?

I know it doesn’t really correlate to my synthetic or is that important, but the only true core memory I have with a synth is with Malcolm.

We had just touched down at LZ2 on Shivas, where I was met by a strange synthetic, spouting about something not being magic. Naturally, I went up to talk to him, learning his name was Malcolm. When I asked what he sold for, since he seemed very marketable, he said 50,000 credits. I then roleplayed buying a pirate themed Malcolm because of the absurdly cheap price, and promised to set up a meeting with him and the CL after the operation.
Of course, I died that operation, but little interactions like that really make or break a synthetic for me. Sure, you can have a long winded MFLC session like with Komaki, but I also really enjoy the idea of just small normally forgettable things that still have so much effort put into it by the Synthetic.

Synthetic Character Story:

Quite a long story, it showcases how I expect Komaki to talk and act from the perspective of a marine. If my personality answer is lacking real depth, it will be found in here.

Skills:

Engineering:

Notably familiar. I understand cade theory (4 tiles back, composite or bio, etc), learnt to do OT, and know how to remove and recycle fuel cells as well as figure out how to start a generator in front of an APC..

Command:

I’ve recently begun to play XO but I genuinely hate it. However, I feel like I am very good at squad leader, and most of my hours lie in being an SL or aSL due to my SG and FTL plat medals.

Medical:

Despite how low my hours may seem in medical, I am confident to do everything EXCEPT research, mainly because research is a cursed role I do not want to touch. If this is a major problem with my synth, I am willing to learn research if necessary.

Requisitions:

Very familiar. Despite having little req hours, I spend most of my low-pop SEA hours managing req, which has given me a standard crate setup and knowledge on what to buy and what not to buy.

What are some scenarios that you can perform combat in? Give us a brief example.

I am giving my student an honorable lecture when I suddenly spot a facehugger running through the grass before gearing up to pounce on the student. Realizing there isn’t enough time to drag her away, I equip my extendable baton and bash the hugger, killing it before it even knows it has been hit…

I am repairing the sensor tower with a squad of four students before a dastardly oni pounces on one of them. They all begin to chase it, leaving me alone, before another lurker comes from behind and pounces on me. I quickly get up from underneath it and bash it back, attempting to flee back to my squad of ruffian ox’s while creating any sort of obstacles I can between us.

I am inside FOB and walking over to another entrance when I see a burrower capping a marine. If I’m able too, I will attempt to drag the marine to safety or to pat them up, before bashing the burrower once to get them to leave. If they keep trying to cap the marine or attempt to slash me, I will continue bashing them until they are no longer a threat. Otherwise, I will let them burrow out to safety.

Final Info:

Have you been banned from CM in the last month for any reason? Do you have any active jobbans?

No

Are you currently banned from our Discord?

No

Let us know why you were discord banned.

N/A

Do you have anything else you would like to include about your application?

Thank you for taking the time to read through all of it! I’m sorry if its really long, please don’t feel the need to rush to get through this app.

I may take a while to respond to questions as I normally don’t have time to check the forums, but I will try to reply when I can.

6 Likes

A solid roleplayer with an interesting quirk. An honor synthetic is an idea I personally haven’t heard of before. It’d be intriguing to see how it’d work ICly.

+1.

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god you are such a larper
+1
(Ive known boston for 8 millenia and he’s a smart cookie with a nack for roleplaying. )

1 Like

God- could it be? A synthetic that’s actually memorable and has a non-say”*smiles” quirk? Is this even possible? Give this mystery man the synth app RIGHT FUCKING N- Oh, it’s Boston…

-99999999999, noob SG, blacklist this player already please

Nah, who am I kidding? Boston is da best!!! They’ve been around for a while and have shown they can roleplay very well when they want to. Their perspective to playing synth makes me think they’re good fit for the ‘new’ generation of synth players the WL is looking for, and I can’t wait to be patronised and coddled by this old rust bucket of a G3.

+1

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This character reads like an expy of the Yakuza series’ Komaki – the wise old martial arts expert and sensei with a greyed hair, long beard, and sleek wrinkled features. Is that just a coincidence?

3 Likes

Despite being you kinda overdoing the bit on discord sometimes (or so it would feel like to me, personally), your character does feel to me like you’ve put a decent bit of thought into it and aren’t just playing it for a joke.

Something I really like about your synthetic idea is how different it is to others, as well as the focus on mentorship, which is likewise uncommon for a synthetic and not something I’ve really seen explicitely before.

I have some questions if you’d humor me about your synthetic and how they react to some different situations, which you should feel no obligation to acknowledge;

– Command orders you to do something that is “dishonorable”, but within marine law and their authority, how does Komaki react?

– You’re talking with someone when another marine around you snaps at you to drop the “stupid names” or makes fun of something you’re saying, how do they respond?

While I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was mildly concerned about your ability to stay grounded and IC-- you tend to be rather ‘silly’, I do recall you playing a much more grounded and serious character in Chlorine in the past, and I’d like to see how this pans out.

A word of warning is that strict vocal quirks can be pretty exhausting to keep up, but I like that you acknowledge that as a possibility and that you need to take breaks not to overdo it.

+1

1 Like

I will start by saying that I think this is an interesting premise for a synthetic, and more importantly I think it can work as long as you take it seriously to an extent (as in, it isn’t treated like a joke by your synthetic or you), although I do have one line of questioning.

Why would the USCMC buy your synthetic?
What is prompting them to have it sold directly to them, as an example? Why is a USCMC logistics officer looking at this specific synthetic model and purchasing it for the Almayer, or any USCMC ship, for a military that is generally the most dishonourable you can get, with the whole destroying entire civilian colonies and massacring them wholesale before using viruses to dispose of the bodies?

This isn’t to bash on your application or to make you go over something you’ve already said, but I am curious as to what you think is the reason somebody in that position would consider buying something from the Komaki line; and, I will also say that it doesn’t necessarily have to be the best decision. There’s nothing wrong with your personality being counter to marine culture to an extent, as long as you handle it right.

1 Like

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

I’m not gonna lie I completely forgot Komaki was an actual character and now I’m realizing the very bad similarities between them.
I named my synth after the Komaki tiger drop and knock back since somehow I remembered a move which you need to talk to Komaki to unlock then the actual character. There are still a lot of differences between the two, and I didn’t get my actual idea from Yakuza, with my old quirk actually being a samurai movie star before being scrapped for this one. I had already decided on Komaki back then, with the look being the exact same.

If this is too much of a problem to the synth council, I’d be willing to change my synths name and reapply in 30 days if necessary, but I promise this was just a really bad looking coincidence.

I’m a little confused on what would be dishonourable in this instance. As said before, Komaki doesn’t intervene on ethical matters and only counts honor on a personal level. The only example I could think of would be if command ordered Komaki to demote a marine, which would still be done, but Komaki would ensure that the marine could talk to him to gauge the impact it had on them.
Even going back to the honourable samurai motif, the Bushido code outlines loyalty and fealty as one of the major pillars, and although Komaki doesn’t fall under any sort of samurai code, I will still strive to uphold that. The discussion of honor would only coincide with the lower ranks and non-commissioned personnel.

Komaki would first asses the Marine, before asking them in the best possible way to calm themself. From there, I would think of something so wise and honourable that they would have no choice to simmer down. For instance, if they were making fun of me calling my marine “young sprout,” I would say something along the lines of “If the tiger laughs at how the fox is called, how will it hear its own name when it is about to die?”
The goal is to “disabled the threat” verbally with a philosophical debate.
If the marine is just not wanting to RP or continuing to berate me, I would just turn to ignore them and continue to talk with my student. After a bit, if they are still there, I’d probably ahelp or call mps if they are also berating the marine im talking to.

You would be right, yes. I’ve said before that I prefer playing gunnery sergeant SEA’s to have less of an impact with silliness. While I can’t promise that I would stop shenanigans, I solemnly promise that I would keep all of my jokes on LOOC, and do no actions that would turn my character into a joke. I wouldn’t go out looking for a katana, for example, or instantly grab one if I find it.

I believe there are many reasons as to why. As said before, Komaki holds no ethical question but still propels people to be the best versions of themselves, which can be invaluable in a military context. He is definitely meant to be a sort of personal trainer, and I expect his opinion on promotion committees to be much more important then other ones.
His physical side can also help marines keep up with their training, which is always important in a military context. I also believe Komaki could make a great bodyguard due to their nature, and a general or such could choose to have them guard important personnel or assets.

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Fantastic Responses. +1. Great SEA and role player.

Very neat guy IC and OOC, has the maturity and experience in the community to carry himself with the whitelist and the role of Synthetic well. +1

1 Like

You may have gotten me banned at one point in time, but you’re good. Very great roleplayer and a better SEA. +1

2 Likes

Sell me your Synth in a paragraph or less.

1 Like

Sorry for taking a while to respond, Bancrose. Here’s my paragraph:
Despite Komaki being a self defense instructor, I wholeheartedly aim to encourage and drive roleplay with Komaki instead of focusing on mechanics or combat synthing, as I will genuinely enjoy roleplaying with him because of my borderline insane commitment to the wise sensei bit. I am, like many others, frustrated with the current atmosphere of *stare groundside surgery or combat synths, which is why I wanted to go fully unique with my synthetic idea, and give him a slight more amount of personality and emotion then normal. Komaki would genuinely be my dream character to play, and I am fully prepared to play him not only within the synthetic guidelines, but to a more rp-focused direction that the synth whitelist seems to be headed in.

2 Likes

Hello, first off I’d like to offer a personal apology for the time this has taken to judge. After quite a lot of thought and discussion, unfortunately this application has been Denied.

This is arguably one of the toughest apps to have judged, but there are concerns that have to be addressed.

Firstly it has been brought to my attention by a few people and even on this app, that this character is remarkably similar if not the same as a character from the Yakuza game franchise, something I’m really not too happy about. Intentional or not, and it would be a stretch for me to believe you were unaware, either way not too appreciative of it and would like to see a name change. You yourself have commented on the scary similarity and willingness to change the name which is good.

Secondly though you have a lot of community vouches here and in council discussion, there is also concern that sometimes you can lean into the silly nature of CM when it comes to roleplay. I think what we the council want to see before/if you apply again is a 30 days of solid effort to curb the silliness and really put your best foot forward, where we will be watching you.

Finally, the quirk. Now quirks of this nature can prove controversial if done wrong. The council and I are willing to let you keep it for a reapplication. But we are not looking for an overly emphasised walking stereotype. Example being my personal synth echoes British culture, this does not mean you’ll see him marching around raving about “Tea and crumpets”. If you do reapply again the council and I will be keeping our eyes on you over the next 30 days, and hopefully you can earn our trust to allow you to echo this culture through your synth.

You may reach out to me or other councillors if you need further questions answered or comments, otherwise I hope to see you applying again after 30 days.

2 Likes