dramazing343 - Synthetic Application

Whitelists Synthetic Applications
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Synthetic Application - dramazing343

What is your BYOND key?

dramazing343

What is your Discord ID?

doctoramazing

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

Mary Strauss

What whitelist applications have you previously completed?

N/A

Synthetic Info:

Name of the Synth Character you wish to play:

Holly

What is your Synthetic’s Personality?

Chipper, professional, with very factual/on-the-nose remarks. Detail-oriented and curious.

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?

Holly would pay close attention to rank, ensuring proper detail in treatment of each according to each. A perfect salute to a Major, and a warm smile to a Marine. She would ask about interests, pressing issues to be dealt with, and generally attempt to uplift morale for each of the personnel on the Almayer.

Their interests lie primarily in stacking; something brutally boring for a human, but endlessly interesting to her. This would extend towards interests in physics, architecture, and lead her towards making elaborate stacks of cards, perfectly filling boxes, and generally taking a pleasure in busywork that others would turn up her nose at. She’d make remarks on structural techniques, styles, and themes around the Almayer and when deployed, and would indulge Marines in discussion about astronomic conditions surrounding the local space.

Resource allocation services underwhelming? Need a personal touch with boundless patience to double-check manifests? Ask your local Weyland-Yutani sales representatives about Holly— your new solution to all logistical issues, with a smile!

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

I love the idea of a role that’s “out of the box” of pure TDM. I’m fascinated by the idea of being able to help Marines with supply drops and personalized, hand-delivered crates of supplies at the front without worrying about “not doing enough” when I use my round as a Marine to do that instead of turning my gun on the bugs. I enjoy a lot of the roleplay side of CM, and I don’t get to indulge in it as much as I’d like without purely staying shipside. I’d like to find a pretty medium with the freedom of a Synth, and I am also familiar with Engineering and Medical enough to represent the whitelist in the ways Synths are known for, as well.

What is your most memorable interaction with a synthetic?

In all honesty, my character, Mary Strauss, is incredibly against the very idea of Synthetics due to a Gen 1 malfunction back resulting in her own injury and that of her family. To this end, a lot of my interactions have been curt, and filled with Mary trying to cover her own prejudice and hatred in order to not create strife with the rest of the force. I do remember, however, a round on Kutjevo Refinery in which the Synthetic “Irwin” managed to gain Mary’s respect, leading her to lessen the amount of ire she’s shown to them since from outright hatred to a more smoldering, careful attitude. During this round, I was an I/O, and I walked the dirt paths of Kutjevo next to Irwin, doing backline work repairing generators and praying we wouldn’t be found while the Marines pushed caves. We bantered a bit, and I remember enjoying his Aussie accent quite a bit. Mary made some remarks about how she wouldn’t have expected something like this from a tin man, and Irwin wore a smile and said something like “All in a day’s work, mate” and I laughed a bit about it.

Synthetic Character Story:

Klaxons blare. The lights flicker on and off, embers in a darkened Requisitions Bay aboard the USS Heyst, as the point-defenses fire off another volley. An explosion rocks the ship, but the calm and methodical voice of ARES lists out a staticky damage report from a nearby intercom that lists nonvitals. Good. The hull was compromised on Maintenance Deck 3, Wing A, but aside from that, the point-defense cannons had done their work.

A Holly unit had been contracted out from Weyland-Yutani’s new Synthetic line earlier in the month, and it was within this very hold that she worked. A magazine clicks, her fingers pressing out another round, and then another, and she carefully arranges them in a box.

“And so, Second Lieutenant, that is precisely why the Heyst is still burning the retrograde thrusters. The pull of the moon Lethe has her right in the pull! Worry not, however… we’ve fuel enough for several more cycles before a full reset.”

Click.

“If you still have any worries as to the integrity of our systems, I can interface with ARES and clear them up for you. Is that all, Lieutenant? I can tell you about Neroid, if you’d like.”

Click. Click.

Second Lieutenant Brannigan speaks up, sitting up on his rickety office chair. Holly identified a bolt she’d tighten later.

“Nae, girlie, that’ll do. How many more rounds ‘til yer finished with that? We’ve supply drop coordinates an’ the boys are whinin’ in me ear, lass!”

Click. Click. Click.

“No need to worry, Second Lieutenant! I am nearly finished— I have calculated that thirty more ten-by-twenty-four cartridges will fit within this case. If you’d like, I can optimize the space for the next drop to increase efficiency in storage?”

She smiles. Click. The last round slides out into her waiting palm, and she slots it neatly into the regulation-sized case of loose ammo. Within a moment, she’s capped it off with a cardboard top and fits it cleanly into the waiting steel crate on the pad.

“Well, lass, if’n y’think we can… Sure. Ah’ll tell 'em tae fire it now.”

Holly stands at attention, the smile retained. A smudge of oil from the ship’s ASRS system lingers on her face, but she is nonplussed.

“Most excellent, sir! Did you know that the requisitions systems on this ship rely on gravitational pulleys dependent on the ship’s low orbit?”

A creak, and then another rattle of point-defense fire. There’s a small lull before a muted series of electrical clicks, and zaps resound, and whirring systems in the background fall from muted hum to full halt. ARES’ voice cracks out through the intercom again, this time almost seeming agitated—

“EMERGENCY: ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE DETECTED. POINT-DEFENSE TURRETS: NON-OPERATIONAL. ASAT BALLISTIC MISSILE IS STILL-”

For a moment, the world falls silent. Holly moves with superhuman speed, expertly taking the Lieutenant to the ground with a touch that’s careful enough to ensure not even an abrasion. Her body stiffens, and then the noise begins. The USS Heyst shudders from an explosive impact, and deadly shrapnel slams through the windows of the Requisitions Bay, barely missing the head-height where the two of them had stood and sat before. Then, the shockwave hits, sending a secondary smattering of glass shards into Holly’s back.

“Were you hit, Second Lieutenant? My vectors were inconclusive; my apologies for any injuries.”

The man utters a shocked, quiet negative, and she stands, appraising him. No blood, but sweat had almost immediately begun to pour down the man’s face, now wreathed in crimson light from the red-alert fixtures that now matched the klaxons.

“Good! Apologies, however, my own integrity has been compromised. If you authorize it, I’ll make critical repairs and we can return to work!”

Her leg had been nearly shredded, and she favored her other one. Her smile never wavered— and after all, why wouldn’t it? The human in the room was safe, and the damage report that ARES continued to rattle off hadn’t included any crewed areas yet. She needed to maintain the mask to ensure the human would not fall into a panic, and inside, she felt no panic. Weyland-Yutani’s programming did not falter. She knew that petty human emotions were inferior to pure calculation of variables.

“By my calculations, Alpha Squad will request a drop soon.”

She offers her hand, speaking in a level tone, as the man stays silent, staring at her. His breathing begins to steady.

"You are recovering excellently, Second Lieutenant. Once I’ve made my repairs, let us continue, yes?

Brannigan’s face slowly morphs into a smile of his own. Homeostasis achieved. Panic averted. Variable is in good condition and able to continue work at near full efficiency. Good. As a Cryo-harried Marine steps up into the line, he takes her hand, standing, and then Holly steps to the chair he occupied a mere minute before.

“Good morning, Private, First Class! How can I assist you?”

Skills:

Engineering:

I’m the most familiar with Engineering of all of these, and enjoy doing stuff like setting up barricades/scavenging metal for it and doing generators and sensors. I can recreate an APC faster than any other player I’ve watched take multiple minutes to perform the task, and I know how to craft, build, and power most structures.

Command:

Familiar to a competent level. I used to play a lot of Command on TG and TGMC, and am able to get the squads under me rallied up, but I’ve got a lacking tactical sense. I’m good at the people side, not necessarily at the decision-making side.

Medical:

I’m very familiar with medical and medical’s systems. I can mix chemicals, perform surgery, and diagnose/triage in the field. I’ve played a lot of Corpsman between here and TGMC, and I know how to do surgeries when the time comes. I’m not at multi-surgery instant surgical levels, but I have competency in each facet of medical.

Requisitions:

I’m familiar with everything except ASRS/budgetary spending. I know how supply drops are sent, how to pack boxes, the tricks to send more, and what the needs are in the field. I know how to vend equipment and the general ideas of which marines will need what and how much is okay to give. (When To Say “No” to 50 HEDP).

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

I am able to perform combat in situations where able-bodied marines are unable to do so, and never in a way where I pursue the enemy past disengagement. When I am pulling a marine on a rollerbed to the FOB with a single marine for escort, I am able to fight a Lurker that pounces the Marine or scare off a Spitter that comes to harass.

If I am holding Comms and Engineering on LV-624, and Marines can only hold a limited number of angles due to numbering few, I am able to swing over barricades but not chase over or open the way in.

If I am operating on a Marine or performing triage and a Facehugger walks up for an easy hug, I am able to swing at them to stop them from hugging my patient or another’s patient.

Final Info:

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

Nope!

Are you currently banned from our Discord?

Negative!

Let us know why you were discord banned.

N/A

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

I hope I get to enjoy another facet of this game and I’m looking forward to roleplay with others in a unique role! Thank you to Westrover for pushing people in OOC to apply— if you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have written all of this up. I hope you find my application acceptable, and if not, please give me constructive advice!

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I for one have seen you around constantly and can vouch for your initiative when it comes to playing your role IC and wanting to engage positively with those around you. I also know you play corpsman and IO the most, with some effort into showing off your comtech skills.

My main concern is the application, the description of your personality is very short, your story is too but it gives me a peek into how your synthetic would behave ingame, which is a very good thing. That’s why I want to ask a few questions to clarify my doubts.

  • What would you say are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of your character? for reference this can be in stressful situations, mundane ones or any other you can come up with.
  • You are having a very nice talk with someone at the FOB, suddenly the radio starts blaring about bad hits, MassCas and retreating, what do you do?
  • What actions would you take if you’re on the ship and nobody is seemingly interested in roleplaying with you?
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I appreciate the faith even with a far shorter story than most— and in all honesty, I’d made a mistake in keeping the “personality” part so short, as well, because I was basing it off of the synthetic names topic page having seen short descriptions there.

As for your questions, I’m happy to answer!

  1. Certainly, Holly would rate highly on completing tasks efficiently, especially in consideration with “perishable” materials. The most coverage with the least cades, the quickest surgical steps without compromising the patient, fitting the most items into a box with One Simple Trick I picked up along the way doing Req. As for her weaknesses, I imagine that multitasking would be one. When faced with several issues at once, like myself as a player, she’d experience difficult in trying to tackle all of them with equal measure, and experiencing the consequences of such measures without any orders to focus on one vital thing. On an entirely different note, as a little quirk I imagined she’d have trouble with matching names and faces— perhaps persistent software or hardware damage to optical sensory suites, or simply a database malfunction. It’s far easier to see a star or a chevron, and that’s part of why I’d like to roleplay her addressing all except those she’s most familiar with by their rank.

  2. While I’d like to explore the outside of the box role of the Synth with not being at the front 24/7 and doing side-tasks instead, I think in a situation like that I’d have to politely excuse myself, ask for a status update from Command to make clear the situation, and then act in order to preserve as many Marines as possible. One on a roller bed, another on my back, pushing them back to the LZ if it were a full retreat. The roleplay is only secondary to the responsibilities of the role to me when there’s a threat of people being removed from the round if I don’t act— basically ensuring those people don’t get to Play the Game, and then if we’re pushed into a FOB siege or into full evac, there’ll far less of a chance to roleplay then. As a sort of aside, I’d like to take a backseat to deployed Corpsmen if there’s the chance for it, so if they can account for all the wounded, I’d try to ruck some supplies back to base in the event of a retreat. That’d befit the character quite a lot as a logistically-focused Synthetic.

  3. If there’s nobody interested in roleplaying with me shipside, I’d find some other way to busy myself. There’s always something to do on the ship for those with the skills to do it, and a lot of busywork for that matter. With decent pop, there’s around thirty people on the ship at any given time, so poking by everyone and asking if they need a hand a-la traditional SS13’s Assistant role (my highest hours back on TGstation) you can get a foot in the door on a lot of ongoing stories of the round even if you’re not a part of them yet. And at worst, you can get some work done that will hopefully be to the benefit of your team.

If there’s any other questions I can answer or concerns to assuage, I’d be more than happy to do so. Again, I do appreciate you seeing me as a player even if you don’t have the full vision of my character— I’ve always been more of an in-media-res sort of roleplayer, and tend to define my characters a lot more through ingame action and roleplay than through prewritten documents and stories. If the Council chooses to approve my application, I hope to show you the truth of all of that.

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Mary, despite being to my memory a relative newcomer to the stage, has always stood out to me as a high quality player.

I’m no counciller so take these bits with a mountain of salt, but here’s my takeaways from what I’ve read

This application is definitely not what we’re accustomed to seeing but that shouldn’t necessarily mean it isn’t taken seriously either, there’s at the very least some good foundations to build on here.

Your personality and “quirk” struck me as a little vague and indiscernable, I liked this comment and this seems unique; though it isn’t immediately apparent to me how it’d fit into a synthetic’s character.

I also really liked your focus on this;

This opinion is echoed by a lot of other synths, and is in my opinion a good mindset to play synth with.

This is also good! A lot of the time securing good roleplay opportunities comes from prodding others and giving them something to work with, rather than just standing around expecting the roleplay to find you.

Again, not a counciller, but my overall feeling is that as a player you’d be an awesome addition to the WL and I’d love to see Holly aboard the Almayer, you have the right mindset, and with the right mindset any other issues are small obstacles to climb.

If you ever wanna nerd out about the Aliens setting I recommend checking out Lou’s lore resources thread– I found that flipping through some of these books got me really immersed in the setting and helped me a lot to really imagine my character in the world-- which also helped me nail down the specifics better.

Even if this one doesn’t make it through, I recommend you revise your app and give it another go, and I give this a strong;

+1

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Hi, sorry about the late reply, I want to expand on your answers.

Certainly, Holly would rate highly on completing tasks efficiently, especially in consideration with “perishable” materials. The most coverage with the least cades, the quickest surgical steps without compromising the patient.

I understand why you say this, but always keep in mind there’s lore gimmicks and gameplay ones, I would consider this a lore one since every synthetic already does their best when it comes to surgery / building barricades.

…as a little quirk I imagined she’d have trouble with matching names and faces— …

Precisely the type of thing I like to hear, mixing both lore and gameplay in a way that makes sense and enhances the character, which tells me the character is thought out beyond a surface level, do you have another example of this?

The roleplay is only secondary to the responsibilities of the role to me when there’s a threat of people being removed from the round if I don’t act

I’m going to present you with another scenario then, you’re on the ship talking to requisitions or otherwise assisting some department, the topic itself isn’t important, suddenly you hear the same call regarding a retreat and a massive number of casualties going on, does your answer change in this scenario? Assume command is not going to answer your questions.

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No worries! I’m glad for the chance to flesh out the app a little bit.

When I first read about Synthetics in the player’s eyes, in some thread months ago now, I recalled there was some chatter about how it seemed all Synthetics were civilian models repurposed for the USCM. I figured, in my original concept of Holly, that I wanted to make a specifically contracted-out model straight from W-Y to the USCM. This isn’t well-demonstrated in my application, but I tried to imply it by my short story taking place on the Heyst during Operation Tychon Tackle. Another sort of quirk that I would want to rope in from that history in the USCM is by making reference to other deployments, planets, and stellar bodies that this Holly unit had operated in. This is already something I do as Mary every so often and very happily so because it’s quite fun to make up lore on the spot and incorporate it as a “canon event” in your character’s personal history— and I think I’d like her to pick up a lot of metaphors from around these deployments. Something like “Well, what can you do when the can kicks you?” and explain that it’s from her time on the mining colony LV-449, or something like “When it goes up, it is your time to go down.” from a planet with high volcanic activity, or something. I’ve been trying to figure out more, but that’s the rub, ain’t it?

As for your new scenario, I think it sort of does change my answer. I’d pry around for details where I could, but with none forthcoming and an Alamo or Normandy deployment not guaranteed, I’d likely keep helping on the ship and talking to people. If I’m shipside, that’s my role, and scrambling to deploy isn’t something Holly would do unless planning to or ordered to. If the front’s falling and I’m not on the planet already, there’s very little to do except panic and frantically try to make ends meet, and that doesn’t strike me as something a Synthetic would do very often. Perhaps I’d change tasks shipside, or listen out on comms to see if I can prepare something quick for the FOB before the fight comes home to it, but ultimately I think if I’m not deployed, there’s not much to do but plan out what to do next.

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Something like “Well, what can you do when the can kicks you?” and explain that it’s from her time on the mining colony LV-449, or something like…

I’m glad your example included speech, because that’s the most practical application of a synthetics uniqueness / quirk if you’d like to call it that, most of the time you will never explain the why or how’s she came up with those phrases, but it adds a subtle layer of lore to the character, synthetics while programmed to be a certain way, aren’t static and they can learn to adapt themselves to their environment. I want to point out a few things.

I’m fascinated by the idea of being able to help Marines with supply drops and personalized, hand-delivered crates of supplies at the front without worrying about “not doing enough” when I use my round as a Marine to do that instead of turning my gun on the bugs.

The roleplay is only secondary to the responsibilities of the role to me when there’s a threat of people being removed from the round if I don’t act.

…ultimately I think if I’m not deployed, there’s not much to do but plan out what to do next.

Players will die and be round ended no matter how much you do, it’s an inevitable part of the game, one that a synthetic has to learn to navigate around and accept. You said you worry about “not being good enough” when it comes to fighting, the same can apply for support roles, and there will always be more things for you to do as a synthetic.

Which is why I want to reassure you that it’s okay to not save everyone that’s not close to you, it’s okay to not deploy or respond to every call for help, that synthetics don’t have to burn themselves out by sacrificing their own fun and roleplay in the process of trying to be perfect.

I’m certain you understand this, but it’s always good to repeat, thank you for answering my questions.

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I can vouch for Mary’s roleplaying skills, she is always making rounds more interesting! Her gameplay is very nice as well and her comtech gameplay I believe is her strong suit. I’m curious how the quirk will be shown in-game, and wished the story was fleshed out a bit more.

+1 overall

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I can vouch for Mary as well, probably the highest quality roleplayer I’ve seen in CM besides Justin Falklin.

+1

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Hello, the council and I have discussed this app and unfortunately it has been Denied.

The application is good, but not quite there. The story is okay but could use a bit more work and the quirk is okay, all be it risking being a little generic.

You also have unfortunately managed to get two notes, recently which is also grounds for denial.

We would advise you to seek help in the wl-app-help channel to refine this from a good app into a great one. You may reapply in 30 days.

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