Synthetic Application - XanderDox
What is your BYOND key?
XanderDox
What is your Discord ID?
xanderdox
Do you usually play a specific character? If so, who?
Eleanor Shen, Klaus Eliade, Sunshine Amadeus
What whitelist applications have you previously completed?
None.
Synthetic Info:
Name of the Synth Character you wish to play:
Hannah
Provide a short description of your synthetic’s backstory
“Engineered to Empathize”
Hannah was designed as a third-generation synthetic psychologist and psychotherapist, marketed primarily towards large entities such as private military contractors, Colonial Marshals Bureau, the United Americas and Three World Empire militaries, and other employers that may have large volumes of staff experiencing or at risk of experiencing mental illness or distress.
Specialized in psychological healthcare and wellbeing, Hannah had the skills, (emulated) compassion, and empathetic personality of a human psychotherapist, without the risks of experiencing compassion fatigue, moral distress, or burnout. Designed to be personable, Hannah has been successfully integrated into numerous workspaces and has additional skills to support interactions with synthetic-averse individuals.
In most environments Hannah was integrated into healthcare teams as a psychotherapist, although some facilities requested models with broader capabilities to provide a full suite of medical care, from routine first aid and advanced care, to complex surgeries. Within military settings (such as the one my Hannah is in), Hannah is capable of all required permissible tasks that may be assigned to her by her crew while still bringing her characteristic sense of compassion to all of them.
Many senior officers have found Hannah to be a beneficial source of advice on maintaining morale and using anonymized data from all service member counselling sessions to model potential development of seditious or insubordinate behaviours, and provide psychology-based solutions for managing associated risks.
Describe your synth’s personality without mentioning their skills or previous professions
Hannah is first and foremost personable and compassionate to all people, whether they be her direct command and colleagues, or complete strangers. When speaking with personnel outside of formal settings such as team meetings, briefing, or on the CiC, Hannah will generally prefer to use someone’s first name over the usage of their rank or last name. If she is aware of someone’s nickname, she may use that as well so long as it is appropriate and inoffensive.
In conversation, she will often use contractions and more informal language as opposed to a regimented or complex vocabulary, in an effort to make her speech more accessible and tolerable by a broad variety of people, with an aim of building relationships with people and social integration as ‘one of the crew’. The exception to this is when discussing necessarily complicated topics, in which case she is able to fluidly adapt her use of jargon to the subject.
Ultimately her defining characteristic and perhaps ‘quirk’ is her incredibly compassionate persona, adequately summed up by the marketing catchphrase “Engineered to Empathize”. She is proactive in asking people how they are doing, how their days have been, how their family are, and establishing physical touch with other people when necessary and appropriate to support their wellbeing, calm them down, or to be generally supportive. If a crew member is likely to die or is severely injured, and there are no other vital tasks to be done (such as treating them), Hannah will preference towards sitting with them, holding their hand, and even reciting poetry or soothing songs to support their comfort. This and her tendency to use people’s first names is part of a broader focus on humanizing her colleagues, who often work in environments that dehumanize them implicitly.
The flipside of this is that this compassion is, as advertised, engineered and performative. While her behaviours will suggest a sense of care for the crew she is serving, shortly after leaving the interaction or situation she will return to a more neutral attitude, and may be seen donning an emotionless expression on her face almost immediately after leaving a social interaction unless in a large group setting where she may be seen. She is more than capable of using this engineered empathy to gain information from individuals as needed by her superiors, and outside of where clinical contexts may prevent this information sharing legally, is content to be used in this manner.
How would your synthetic interact with enlisted personnel, officers and civilians? How could you involve your personality into these interactions?
She has an incredibly polite and deferential attitude towards officers, especially those in Command. So long as their ideas, orders, or opinions are suitably unlikely to cause harm and do not violate her programming, she will intentionally reinforce the confidence of Command. An example might be “Captain, you’ve done an amazing job with this operation so far, I admire your attention to detail!”, this both serves as a way to build her relationship with them and establish her as personable in their mind, but also to reinforce their own confidence and effectiveness as officers, hoping to provide positive reinforcement for good performance.
Her pro-social and compassionate attitude would lead to her interacting with all crew in a similar jovial manner, with an emphasis on investing in building a rapport with them and expressing interest in their lives and wellbeing. If she sees someone sitting around alone, or doing nothing, she is likely to approach them and introduce herself, ask how they are, and what they do on board (even though she already knows).
With respect to the above, Hannah does has a ‘soft-spot’ (pre-programmed attentiveness) towards those at greatest risk of mental distress, and so she makes these social efforts most often towards enlisted/officers that serve in the field directly, and CiC Officers. By learning about these individuals and building a relationship with them, she better prepares herself to support them should something significant occur that impacts their mental stability or health.
As mentioned in her personality, Hannah defers to using people’s first names as much as possible. In private, she will refer to even the Commanding Officer by their first name unless she has reason to believe or is corrected to refer to them by their rank. In group, mixed company, or formal settings she will always refer to commissioned officers by their rank and last name, or when acknowledging them directly, with Sir/Ma’am. For enlisted and civilians Hannah will always use their first names unless personally requested not to do so, and make an attempt to use appropriate and respectable nicknames as well, outside of formal situations
Balancing her need to be personable, likeable, and generally come off as kind to all people, she will occasionally participate in banter among enlisted or civilian personnel (except VIPs such as the Liaison) but never at the genuine expense of another’s dignity, nor will she ever participate in banter related to one’s mental health, state of mind, or wellbeing. With officers, she will always avoid smart-ass remarks, banter, or other potentially unprofessional conversation unless she has an exceptionally positive rapport with the specific officer in question.
Lastly, I would say that her goal would be to leave every individual she has a direct interaction with, with a sense that she genuinely cares about them as a person.
Why do you want to be a synthetic/why should we whitelist you?
My want of the whitelist is primarily because I am always interested in nuanced roleplay opportunities. There is a lot of freedom in CM to roleplay in different ways and to varying extents whether it be hardcore paperwork and interpersonal roleplay as a CL, or solid teamwork played out primarily through direct action in game with your squad as a Rifleman. Now, Synthetics are one of the few roles that come with additional rules and expectations that makes this opportunity slightly less freeform, but provides the benefit of directly contributing to the server’s setting-based atmosphere in a generally consistent manner.
I love developing characters and continuing development through play, but I get particular enjoyment building a character that well integrates the requirements of that character. Restrictive requirements offer an opportunity to really fulfill a role well that other people are looking to benefit from your quality in - I love that idea! I care a lot about making other’s experiences more impactful, grounded in worldbuilding, and memorable, while also having fun myself by having the opportunity to roleplay in a new way compared to normal CM13 gaming.
What is your most memorable interaction with a synthetic?
Synthetic Character Story:
Skills:
How familiar are you in CMs support roles such as medical/engineering/requisitions/command and which of them are you more and less proficient in?
I am well familiarized with medical, requisitions and command, and spent the last month playing a variety of these roles to ensure I was comfortable in them. I can comfortably play CargoTech/QM, Doctor/Nurse, and Maintenance. My main joys for awhile have been FTL/SO/Chief MP. While I am not the quickest surgeon like some whom have perfected the art, I haven’t lost a patient. I ultimately follow a mantra of slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I know the surgical shortcuts but prefer not to use them if I can help it. I know how to prepare the commonly requested chems and the cringe, UNGA. Research is where I am weakest, I have not touched that really yet and don’t have a huge interest in doing so consistently, but very open to learning it and probably will try a few rounds in the near future while this is up. Engineering is where I am second weakest. I know how to fix comms, and an APC. I know cade theory and how to setup a FOB, I just haven’t spent a lot of time in explicit engineering roles, instead preferring to do things as FTL where I can.
What are some scenarios that you can perform combat in? Give us a brief example.
With regard to combat, a synthetic’s ultimate focus is self-preservation. While a synthetic may engage in violent acts against xenomorphs and non-faction personnel when required, in most circumstances the focus of this violence should be to allow the synthetic to safely escape, with a few notable exceptions where direct intervention is allowed. Some example scenarios.
1, My synthetic is assisting bravo squad in building the FOB. For one reason or another (PVT RFN left a folding cade wide open), a Runner has made its way into the FOB. If the FOB was well manned by marines, I would probably not participate in chasing and killing the Runner and focus instead on standing nearby deployed Medical/Req/Mess personnel, but were there only a few marines in the FOB and I was concerned about the Runner not being dealt with, I’d be able to participate in combat against the Runner. While the marines would likely want to focus on killing it, mine would simply be to bother it enough to get it to leave the FOB if there is an already existing opening for it to do so.
-
On Code Delta during hijack, I am away from most of the crew when the Hive arrives. I can engage them in combat until I am able to reunite with a member of the crew. How this might play out is engaging a Sentinel in a melee while slowly attempting to make my way to the hangar from engineering. The Sentinel is consistently harassing me, and I chase it away when it does appear. Eventually, I see a marine coming out of cryo. I inform them of the current situation and begin escorting them promptly to where I know the survivors are holding at the hangar, and once present I remain with the group and provide background assistance in triage/medical care where I can.
-
An Alpha Rifleman begins harassing me on the ship, and engaging in anti-synthetic rhetoric. I inform Command and politely attempt to disengage and leave the area. The Alpha Rifleman attempts to order me to stop and continue talking with me, which I ignore, he begins hitting me with a crowbar as I attempt to leave (I shoot an ahelp just in case staff want to intervene). In response, I disarm him and place him in an aggressive grab while calling Military Police or in their absence, asking Command to send a deputized officer to my location with handcuffs/zipties.
In all examples, if it became clear that I was not going to be able to sustain my defensive actions (i.e., getting my butt kicked), I would do my darndest to flee.
Final Info:
Have you been banned in the last month?
No.
Do you have anything else you would like to include about your application?
Thank you for the time taken to read my application and to those who helped provide feedback on my story and such in advance.