Salevran Marendan- HOS. but done right this time.

[Michael Warren]

Usual character name:Salevran Marendan
BYOND username:Michael Warren
Discord username (if you are on our discord): Salevran M(Sev)\Narinder
Recommended by (if applicable):N\A
Goon servers you play:3 and 4 leaning on 4

Reason for application: The beret is not something worn lightly. I've spent a substantial amount of time in security and with it have learned a great deal both from HOSII and officers alike. the opportunity to lead security has always intrigued me to further my ability to be a good leader in both times of peace and combat. I want to show that officers aren't just a hammer but a well-oiled machine whose greatest strength is their fellow officers by their sides. HOSII hold a great deal of power and the ability to decide life and death to those who oppose them. I hope if approved to help show my fellow men and woman of security both old and new good ways to not just be effective but fun for both sides of the gun.

Security experience (300 word minimum): i have been doing security for quite a while since about a month after i came to goon and that was nearly a year or so about. i started my career as a detective about as clueless as your average staff assistant but picked things up slowly as i went along. i have solved a number of cases in both forensics work and standard line duty across all three roles in security and have had the pleasure of working along more than a few great people. security is weird in the way that it brings people together as a team who relies on each other and manages to do it quite well at that. i took a short break for a while and have since come back into the fold of security at full strength to an assortment of old and new faces alike as well as new HOSII joining the ranks of the overworked probably drunk head of our department (looking at you argent). i quite like interrogations and working people out...just a few rounds ago i had a great conversation with a guy called nightshade in regards to a poisoning case. i can say with confidence that since ive been back both sides of the gun have been lovely to work with both my fellow line officers and the ones who have been trying to remove my insides. i do continue to look forward to seeing and training more new faces as they join the ranks of the lads behind our defense.

Answer two or more of the following:

• What advice would you give to other sec players?
  your fellow officers are your best weapon. working as a team is the only chance you stand against the horrors of this galaxy. be sure to keep in communication and don't run head first into the thick of things without your backup. secondly, don't hesitate to ask for help. nobody is born an all knowing god. we can teach you the things you don't know and maybe you can even teach us something....life is learning. thirdly, treat thy enemy with grace. they may be a wretched criminal destined for the dark cells but there is still a person on the other side of the screen and that person feels things too. a random guy getting backhanded even if they weren't doing much of anything but existing is poor form. and lastly, do not be afraid to fail. you cant and wont win every fight and you sure as hell cant know everything. work with the information you have on hand and keep a buddy by your side and you might just live. most important thing i cant stress enough is that we are a team. work together and nothing will stand in your way....
  
• What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
  there was a round a while ago i was a CE and an inspector came by from CC directly...a real bigshot guy. we gave him some wine and the man dropped dead in front of myself, the RD, the NTSC, and the HOS so everyone starts freaking out like someone kicked them. i came up with the idea for the NTSC to take his uniform and pose as him to convince the two OTHER inspectors that showed up he never died. we even gave the NTSC a speechpro to hide his voice. the whole thing was quite entertaining and for what its worth? they believe our lie.
  
• What game improvements or changes do you think would benefit security players?
  there isn't anything off the top of my head i can think of that we could use at present. everything we have is balanced and set up quite well for its power and utility.
  
• Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
  if im in a full team as a detective i usually hang back and run forensics while letting the lads do the heavy lifting. if im an officer on a full team i might try and see if people will work in at least pairs and buddy up with someone or go spend more time mingling with the crew when situations are being responded to with enough officers. otherwise i bounce ideas off any HOS or officers for cases and brainstorming to track down crime.
  

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.
  the wings of science purple spite us
  the halls fill with plasma
  its hot in here
  
• What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
  the idea of a kind of blueshield system. a blueshield is like a security officer assigned to a head and charged with their defense and survival. would be interesting to see how that might pan out
  
• Draw a picture!
  (see last application. it is too shameful to be willing to post it a second time. i shutter just thinking about it)
  

Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will): i have had no bans im aware of

as a side note i ,as stated, have been gone for a little bit taking a break. i have since come back and will be (trying) to work security again if the RNG gods permit it. the old faces might remember me but the new ones likely don't even know me. as such i haven't recently trained anyone ,though i have in the past, and i will be working to prove my capability to these new faces not only with the gun but with words. an HOS isnt a robustness test but a test of how fun and beneficial to a rounds motion one can be. in the last app i noticed people i knew posting things but i almost feel like thats a sort of bias. please....remain impartial. keep things fair. we don't need fake berets even if you like them.

[Emrsnn]

The philosophy you have written out here is solid and there's no doubt in my mind that you have the technical skills down, but I would encourage you to hone your ability to be an ambassador to security- or to the game in a general sense- further before going for HoS. Placing yourself in a position to be of service to your team (i.e. helping coordinate everyone, offering more advanced training to them, asking opinions to make sure everyone has input) would be really beneficial coming from you as opposed to an "I know what I'm doing, so I should handle this myself" approach, especially in your case because you're already so familiar with the mechanics of the sec equipment. I'd still recommend it even if it would require you to occasionally play an assistant or a head in another department to separate yourself from the urge to focus on antags instead of supporting the team. 

No + or - given here, just general leadership advice.

[Lefinch]

Hi, you know full well I have considerable respect for your character roleplay, characters and general philosophy in the game. The last review I left focused on that and I still maintain that Michael is brilliant in this area, they're capable, have a wonderful sense of narrative pace and are in my view a positive improvement in the rounds they feature.

One area I couldn't comment on last time was security and how you work within the team. You've also stated you were looking for more direct feedback. So I've been making an effort to observe rounds, and incidentally play some rounds in roles I usually wouldn't under a new character where I was lucky to have some direct interaction. 

the two good examples I've got for feedback were as officers, the first time as antagonist, you gave a good, classic performance that I have come to expect from you, giving a long escalatory lead-in to revealing you were a changeling. I won't dwell on this point because I covered it above and covered it in your prior feedback: Michael is great when they're making a narrative effort.

The second encounter I'll go into a little more detail: The purpose here is to underline feedback that I think might be useful where I've trodden old ground before. Does that means the above shouldn't be considered? Absolutely not, it's a demonstration of qualities that I think are important to a HoS too: Engagement, sense of pacing, for RP, roleplay, and the like. 

However, I think the following is stuff we've not talked about before and hopefully serves as useful to you.

To give you round context: this was "that time the sea wasn't real" round  and you as a Captain. Instead of the usual experience I've been lucky to have, you came off as aggressive, dismissive and directed misapplied critique at an officer regarding their behaviour that as best I can tell seemed to come out of the blue regarding communication, when moments before said dialogue they were making a report on another arrest, and had during the round been communicating their actions and speaking on general, and security radio in response. Leading on a bit to later in the round, this is not a critique you offered to general radio with security or anyone else. As such, to me it could only be perceived as individually targeted and arbitrary.

Further, you had taken part in the killing of another antagonist at the same time, all well and good there if you ask me: A captain might have good reason to be involved in a situation like that. However, you seemed quite dismissive the results and processing of that once combat was over, even when the officer asked for direction from you in a command position. There wasn't a HoS at the time, and Captains can help stand in, especially one applying for HoS, it's a good way to show their best so to speak. It didn't come.

I jumped out to observe at this point to get a better sense of your motivation by direct observance I figured I'd try and get some context that way. I was also hoping to see perhaps a captain noticing there was no HoS taking some delegatory role and engaging with the security team more directly.  

Confusingly to me, you were at this point mostly disinterested with security. much later in the final 20 minutes of the round you re-engaged, but it basically came at a lull period after you'd had some more fun with some "main events". This seems very "hot and cold" where you're picking pretty much for your own entertainment first. Ultimately, your engagement was to authorise the armory, probably for the event ongoing, then promptly evaporated again even though the officers had indicated they were struggling and sought an assistant to deputize. You made a great effort here, but then sort of just walked off again. 

The whole experience was frankly, odd. and if I didn't know you better, I'd assume pretty much "Captain killed a guy for valid fun, decided to vent at a random officer for it, and walk off and enjoy themselves doing something else" Which for a captain? sure! But I wouldn't ever want to see a HoS doing that and during an application period I would have assumed you'd be aiming to show your "sunday best" as it were which I can't say this was. 

Outside of the round, discord responses post round such as to the ending syndicate fight such as:

Most people kind of stood and watched, someone had to do it.

I'd say engaging itself 100% was on point, but I'd say it might have been a great time (or five minutes before) to engage with the security team, who were themselves engaging with the antags by securing escape. However, it was absolute chaos at this point and I don't think it's unreasonable you didn't, but a discord comment like this might rub off on people the wrong way, the implication accidentally being "I was making an effort, they weren't" They were, and as HoS sometimes the team isn't going to match the skill level you have, but still are making an effort and to see this might be pretty disheartening. 

As a whole, outside of prior experiences this would appear to be serving personal entertainment more than anything. I'm good with that outside of any other context than this application. it's a game, we're here to have fun. But you've asked for feedback and I'm hoping this might help give some indication of what I think might help it. it would have been very easy without prior context to perceive this round as something not fitting for a HoS to me. It looked a lot like you're there for parts fun for you, not for the rest. 

I offer this while still giving with consideration +1 It was one encounter out of possibly hundreds I've had with you. I think Michael would be a great HoS, and simply put I refuse to believe they would not put their effort into the role in a way that's engaging for the officers and antagonists, and crew. I also stress this is a personal perception of the round, a single round. I've gone into detail here not to emphasise that I don't think they'd be a good HoS, but hopefully to give them something useful to consider if they do about how their actions will have an impact on how their team feels.