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+--- Thread: Lily Smalls'/Amanita Clearwater's Joint HoS application (/showthread.php?tid=24778)
Lily Smalls'/Amanita Clearwater's Joint HoS application - LiteralLily - 12-19-2025
Usual character name: Lily Smalls, Amanita Clearwater
BYOND username: LiteralLily
Discord username (if you are on our discord): krystalinekate
Recommended by (if applicable): N/A
Goon servers you play: Mostly 4, sometimes 3
Reason for application:
Security has a huge learning curve and even players who have been playing for a while can struggle to make decisions and not get lost in a sea of red comms. The Head of Security stands to provide solid examples of what "good" security looks like to new and old security players alike. Leading by example and encouraging and uplifting fellow security players are some of my main goals whenever I play security, and being a Head of Security would only help with that goal.
Security experience (300 word minimum):
Back when I first started playing, the idea of playing Security stressed me the hell out. When I finally tried I was a shakey, trigger happy mess. I got a warning or two for firing on antags without giving them a chance first and so I took the opportunity to step back and learn how to do it right. I spent a lot of time playing security with my character Lily Smalls and did my damndest to get a good feel for when to lean into a bit, and when to bring the hammer down. There's never really a perfect answer but I've come a long way from my first month or two playing the game, in general I've found that leaning into RP and interacting with antagonists as if they were a movie villain leads to much more fun and memorable moments! Sure, arguing with the traitor holding a bomb gives them a chance to use it, but a good monologue is great for everyone involved. Once a criminal is captured, there's a few factors I consider when dealing out punishments, and there's no one correct answer for every situation, but generally I take into consideration how early into the round it is, how much opportunity the player has had to push the round drama, and how severe the impact of the crime is. I generally don't ever end up brigging for more than 3:00 because past that point exiling to give them one last stand, or execution to end the chaos are much better options in my opinion than sitting around and doing nothing for 3-5 minutes. I try my damndest to act with a level of leadership during my security rounds, doing routine check-ins and dispatching officers to specific alerts, all while doing what I can to maintain a clear and active list of the current threats and action items. It's not always the easiest, sometimes the screams just drown out attempts to bring order, and that's okay! Attempting to keep calm and stay focused on objectives still goes a long way in this role.
I played a LOT of security in my early days, leading to it being my most played role by a large margin. I learned a lot during that time, but decided it would be for the best to take a break and learn some other roles, primarily civilian. This is when I made my character Amanita Clearwater, a shelterfrog. I spent a lot of time bouncing between security/captaining as Lily, and civilian as Amanita. Having low stress jobs to lean back on after hard shifts really helped manage stress levels and burnout, and I've carried that habit through to this day. Security is something I opt into when I specifically choose to, because I don't ever want it to be a role I'm forced into. Since then, I occasionally play security as Amanita as well, but not as much as I used to.
When I play security I try to take failures and difficult rounds as learning experience. A good example of a moment I learned from was a particularly rough security round back when I was newer, and where there was a pretty low amount of officers (I may have even been the only one I can't quite remember) but we had a troublesome cloaker that I didn't know how to deal with. I ended the round feeling frustrated, but decided to take it as a learning moment and asked in the round end how to deal with a cloaker, and trying to be a good sport about the fact that I just got outmatched that round! Ever since then when I have tough security rounds I end up asking myself "What went well, what could have gone better? What can I learn from this." A lot of the time, there's definitely things I could have done better! Maybe I didn't try to talk to the Wizard enough and engage in RP with them. Maybe I was lacking on communication and lead to a lot of misunderstanding Maybe it was just a bad round with the odds stacked against us! Sometimes bad rounds just happen, and learning how to move on from them has been a big deal in handling frustration and developing a good mindset with security. I'm still only human, and so I still get frustrated at some rounds, I still end some rounds feeling crummy. But whenever I do I've learned how to step back, take a deep breath, and move on.
Another piece of security that I'm doing my best to do good by is being a good sport! As a security officer I am one of the best equipped to comment on an antags actions during a round. Congratulating round antags after the fact on their clever moves, well played fights, or just overall "victories" helps make a cordial environment
and it feels good to spread that kind of positivity. To give an example, I had a recent round where we had some troublesome spiefs and I as the captain went to execute one that had reached the end of their rope. The ended up breaking out during the execution and firing not one but TWO derringers at me and the detective before escaping! It would be easy to write this off, but I chose to tell them how funny the situation was, and how much I loved their turning of asking US if WE had any last words. It was a great bit and both sides ended the round feeling satisfied. Everyone deserves encouragement in a game like this, and I want to be one that spreads that energy.
I don't have as much experience training new members of security as I wish I did, mostly just due to not playing security at times where there are new folks to teach. But what I do have is experience training people in general, I love teaching people in all manner of roles, from engineering to medical to chemistry to packets! I have no issues training new folks on security either, I have trained a few newbee security assistants in my time, and will detail one story in a later section, and I will continue to do so as long as there are people willing to learn! Something I wanna do is expand the security playerbase's knowledge of cybersecurity by giving lessons on Packets and how to best deal with folks using them seeing as I have a decent bit of knowledge on that front, and it can be a bit of a mysterious black box to a lot of folks.
All in all I feel like I've worked hard to develop a good mindset when I play security, and do my best to keep everyone's fun in mind when I play. I'm not perfect and there's still plenty to learn but I feel confident I'm in a good place right now and can be trusted to maintain a good round flow and healthy leadership mindset as a Head of Security.
Answer two or more of the following:
What advice would you give to other sec players?
My biggest advice for sec players is threefold:
1. Give back what you get. If an antagonist is spending the time to roleplay and escalate properly, return the favor! Get into arguments, have flame wars over comms. It's a huge part of the antag's fun to get an effort in RP back and proper escalating punishments.
2. Teamwork makes the dream work. This cannot be understated, a solo officer is an easy target. Almost every antag type has ways to deal with solo targets very efficiently, so being alone and getting into fights is asking for trouble. Get backup when things look dicey! Take a 60 seconds to assemble a gameplan for the active shooter! And make sure people know where you are and what you're doing as often as is reasonable, they may need to get to you quickly!
3. Learn to fall in love with dying. As a security officer you're going to die. A lot. Getting used to it is important to learning how to be a "good" security officer since being good at security expands beyond the round itself! How you deal with rounds after they're over is very important too.
What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
We had a round where security were given cool new outfits and I like to think we looked pretty cool! But then a brand new security assistant, it was their first day in security, walks up still in their standard jumpsuit looking small by comparison, so the admins airdropped them a full set of
NT industrial armor, leaving them bulky and powerful looking. We were all told to compliment them on how cool they looked and we all gladly did. I took ownership of teaching the newbee showing them the basics of their gear, secmate, and giving out tickets. The round progressed and things started to explode and get violent
The newbee took it all like a champ, holding the line with their shield and being a solid line of backup. They survived a silicon roguing, several explosions, and a gunfight or two, and when we reached the end of the day they finally made their way into the security section of the shuttle.
I congratulated them for surviving, and told the rest of the team to join in suit and tell the newbee what a good job they did! "Everyone congratulate the rookie on surviving their first day!" And then the security compartment exploded, killing everyone inside. The timing was comical and cemented itself in my mind forever as one of my favorite moments in security, and I hope that rookie continued to play since then.
What game improvements or changes do you think would benefit security players?
I think a small benefit would be having a disk rack in security for the clone disks they start with. Sorting them out on the table is a chore but there's not really a better place to put them! I also really wish there were better tools to deal with problematic cyborgs other than just smashing them to pieces. There's not really a good way to "arrest" a silicon as a security officer and I feel like it has led to a lot of negative sentiment between borg players and security players. While I'm not sure what that would look like, I definitely believe it would benefit the community as a whole and lead to less ambivalence towards rogued borgs.
Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
When I play with a full security team, I try to make sure that response levels are appropriate. Suffocating a round antag early on can really squish their opportunity to drive the round, so if there's enough security officers dealing with an issue, I try to walk away and let the first responders handle it. Trying to juggle which officers go where is also something I try to help with to make sure 4 officers don't end up at the same alert of the clown throwing pies.
When I'm alone or on a lower sec pop, managing which alerts and callouts get your limited attention is a balance that needs to be struck, and it's generally dictated by how many people it affects, for example if medbay is getting attacked, that'll affect everyone, making it a high priority. I also have to lean into roleplaying and negotiation a lot more since I am a lot less robust without a team to back me up. If the situation gets bad enough, handing out basic protective gear such as barriers and body armor to normal crew members can also help during a tough situation when there's not enough hands to protect everyone.
Answer one or more of the following fun questions (because it's important for the HoS to be fun):
Write a poem to convey your thoughts on security/NanoTrasen/space/bees/anything related to SS13.
(To the tune of "That's Amore" by Dean Martin)
When the chef pulls you in, and the room starts to spin, that's a changeling...
When you feel like a nap and you're thinking "oh crap", that's a changeling...
When your leads are a bust, and you don't know who to trust, that's a changeling...
When the beast comes awake and leaves gore in it's wake, that's a changeling!
What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
I've always wanted to run security structures with specific themes. For example a wild west themed security force, with sherrifs and deputies.
This could also come in the form of having security redecorate the security wing with a specific prompt and awarding folks who do a good job.
Draw a picture!
No art skills RIP
Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will):
No bans but I've gotten an Admin PM or two during my early days gently telling me to not be as harsh
RE: Lily Smalls'/Amanita Clearwater's Joint HoS application - ANNmagedon - 12-20-2025
+1 good judge of the situation