Cynthia Xeonyr HoS Application

[RaccoonPope]

Reason for application:

Security is a department that has some of the most direct effects on a round itself. Through my time in security, I have grown to understand this directly through my actions as not only a security officer but also as an RPer. I have seen how my actions have shaped following interactions and overall affected the flow of the round. I firmly stand on the position that security is there to add to the round, not just eliminate threats. It is with this consciousness of our effect on the round that I wish to apply for the beret so that I may impart such knowledge onto others, and furthermore, foster the development of each round to be something better than it was before.

I can and will call security a home. I only hope to help shape it for the better and continue to foster a mentality that adds to rounds that was instilled in me.

Security experience (300 word minimum):

As is the case with many, my story in security began with me, a confused, unknowing security assistant. About 5ish months ago now, I, whose only experience at the time was medical, was a tad too shy to ask for help, so I just lurked around as a now long deleted character slowly learning the basics. Luckily, I was eventually scooped up and taught by an experienced officer. Over time, I learned due process and procedures, and after about a month, I officially took up my baton for the first time. Though there was this lingering feeling internally that I  was not ready or that I was bound to make an irreversible mistake… Feeling this burnt me out, and I took a break from security to focus on other departments.

Following my month-long Tour de la Station, I found my way back to security. Over these last 3ish months now I have been committed to security and have learned immensely each passing day. Whether that was the mechanics of our equipment or how to incorporate more RP into engagements (even if it's as simple as offering water to the person you are interrogating as a rapport-building technique). Through my experiences, I have learned and further tried to find more and more ways to involve others in the round. For example, consulting a paranormal expert, such as the chaplain for a wraith or a scientist/doctor for a changeling. I also try my best to go along with gimmicks or novel solutions. It took me a while to learn, and I am still learning to do it better, but it is good to play into a gimmick or bit, even if it can kill you! Such is the nature of telling a good story!

Considering all I have learned, I can confidently say I know my way around the department, so much so that I can and will teach any rookie that comes my way. Teaching has been one of my greatest passions, to know I helped someone and guided them in what they know is a feeling like no other. New recruits are the future of security! Over this last month, it has become clear to me who I want to be in security. Through my teaching experiences and guidance from others. I should not always be an officer in the limelight. Sometimes it is time to sit back and let others have their time to shine, then guide them to truly flourish. 

Answer two or more of the following:

• What advice would you give to other sec players?
  

My biggest advice above all else is to know when to step away. This can be when the going gets too tough or in a battle sense of knowing when it's wise to retreat, or even from the department from burnout as I did. I myself, in my early security days, pushed myself to my very limit in all these senses. Remember, this is not a real-life job! Take time, smell the roses, and enjoy the game! If you aren’t having fun, there is no shame in stepping back. The department will always welcome you back with a salute and maybe a coffee if the carafe isn't stolen.

• What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
  

I have to say some of my favorite moments are located in interrogation. One time in particular, I recall being a detective interrogating a chaplain traitor. This interrogation turned into more of a theocratic and moral debate and made for one of my favorite rp moments that ultimately ended in a slew of chaos and sawflies. It was a moment where I truly felt proud of the dialogue that happened, and that it added to the experience both security and the traitor themselves had.

• Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
  

In a full team (especially one with a HoS), I typically take more of the officer role rather than a leader, acting as a set of hands following orders. This is something I have been working on, trying to be less of just an officer in these rounds. 

When in the case of being the only experienced officer, I tend to take more of this leader role and step back trying to organize the team giving callouts demonstrating more of this leadership role.

In the specific case of it being JUST me, I have never been in this scenario! I would hope my mannerisms carry through, making for a good experience even if it is a tad chaotic!

Answer one or more of the following fun questions (because it's important for the HoS to be fun):

• What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
  

Three gimmicks I have thought of that I think could be fun (keep in mind I truly have no idea about the balancing/logistics behind some of these) are:
Clone day: every officer is the same person, like Pokémon Nurse Joy, or in this case, Officer Jenny. It would certainly be confusing for the sec team, so it would rely on heavy communication, but I think this could be fun with a hivemind spin to it! Overall, I think it could feed into a unique round experience, even if it’s a confusing one! (This also can have other departments having the same issue)

Oops All Assistants: probably not a new idea, but as one could guess from the name, no officers, no HoS, all assistants. I think this could be fun as it allows some veteran security players to go back to their roots as an assistant and pulls us back from many of the tools we usually rely on, making for more novel solutions to problems like an assistant ambush! 

Swords and Swords?: One of my favorite things combat-wise, is sword fighting. I want to see more of that in a round with REAL stakes! Some may have seen me before hosting small sword sparring events with clown sabers, hoping to bring the love of sword fighting to others! This gimmick here is loosely based upon the admin gimmick of sending us back to medieval times, as well as taking away all taser batons and whatnot. I feel it would be a unique experience for security/antags to only rely on swords (or other melee options) to demonstrate not only one's sword fighting prowess but also honor! Engarde!

Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will):
2/25/25 24 hours for self antagging. It is something I am not proud of, nor something I ever intend to happen again. 

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Silly me I accidently forgot to include the first section of the Application!!!!

Usual character name: Cynthia Xeonyr & Vixen Xeonyr
BYOND username: RaccoonPope
Discord username (if you are on our discord): raccoonpope
Recommended by (if applicable): Telareti
Goon servers you play: Primarily 4, 3 sometimes.

[Telareti]

My Experiences with Cynthia and what I've observed have been positive, Cynthia has continued to improve and work on a lot during the time I first remember seeing her in security, and I believe she'll continue to refine on everything even now, I have witnessed much of the behaviour Cynthia brings up in this application, She's able to keep a level head during tough situations and take a step back when things become too much, I've also witnessed her training many new assistants, teaching them the basics, I recall a few rounds where she partnered up with them to allow them to experience and learn at the frontlines, her willingness to interact and positivity towards people is something I've really noticed, she is often interactive with the team and coordinates well, and is fair and equal in how she treats people, she's shown awareness of her actions and how they can effect the flow of the round, as such her handling of antags often incorporates what's fair in the moment and what's good for the RP and round, giving time for things to escalate in a healthy way.

I believe Cynthia has a good grasp on security knowledge and when I'm playing HoS Cynthia has shown to be a reliable officer, often helping with coordination and being responsive on radio, in times when the HoS dies or security lacks one, I've witness her step up and focus more on leading, with everything said, I believe Cynthia would make a good HoS, and her positive attitude towards people and the round will be a good influence overall. +1

[Drakios]

Cynthia is a very reliable secoff, as an HoS I know I can trust her with an task and she will do it to the best of her capability's, not only that she is also very helpful when a round is more chaotic, she uses the comms often and from what I see has a good overview of what's going on most of the time which is a hard thing to do.
Rp wise she also does great she knows when too goof around and when its better not to.
I'm pretty sure I also saw her multiple times teaching new secass and also asking them if they need any help.
In general she brings a positive attitude to the sec team the only moments were she is a bit to negative is when she is talking about her self and how well she did, having a harder time accepting praise or compliments, but I think I also saw her asking for feedback from time to time to improve herself, which is good because everyone can improve every time, nobody's perfect which is also why she shouldn't be to hard on herself.

In general, she is a trustworthy player from what I've seen, she knows the rules, and knows how to handle things inside sec and still be fair to antags.

So from me it would also be a +1

[Lefinch]

Heya RaccoonPope, Clonesec sounds like a fun gimmick! I had a look through your app and took a bit of time to watch a few rounds and wanted to give some feedback. Please bear in mind I'm not a regular sec player and it's all just my opinion so yours may vary. I'll break it into a general observations, then some details about a specific round and then a final summary for those who don't want to read the whole thing. 

General observations

• pretty chatty and receptive in terms of communication with the station as a whole. There's times where you've been a bit distracted from something happening in front of you but every time I saw that it was also because you were focusing on something else, so understandable and something we all do.
  
• I know it sounds silly, but you do seem to really enjoy playing. Not a hugely important observation but having a positive attitude is always going to reflect on others and can never harm the playing experience.
  
• Seem relatively competent in every department I caught you in. 
  
• You seem to understand security very well. Knew how to adapt to different threats from different antagonists. Know the importance of your tools and so on. 
  
• I have either been unlucky or it hasn't cropped up, but I haven't had the chance to witness a lot of training opportunities, there's a "kinda" scenario in the specific round below but it's heavily caveated. I'm not saying you're missing opportunities as they just didn't crop up in the rounds I saw you play, but definitely make use of any opportunities you can to train where appropriate.
  

Specific round stuff

This all took place in a very recent round on cogmap 1, for reference, you took a brief visit to the void at one point. 

• Good basic opening procedure, but I like that you had a nice side chat with the chef while you were getting organised in the nearby outpost. It's not a huge thing but keeping in contact with the general populace when it's not in service of the job is nice RP and reflects your general willingness to engage with people which was reflected throughout watching you.
  
• I have a note that says "What's with the screaming?" I only just realised right now you had mildly mutated which was what the visit to genetics was about. But it lets me segue into the fact you stay in your lane in rounds: let the docs do their work and asked for assistance rather than self-medicate. Again, not a huge HoS thing but a good general practice as the HoS you are the example to follow. 
  
• This part is very subjective, so feel free to toss it out, but there was what I'd call a "Hyper vigilant" Security assistant working on the team that to me was struggling a bit with pacing their vigilance and being a little too proactive (again, very subjective) on spotting antags. I feel you and the team did well to absorb and communicate that but not also jump on the bandwagon to act on it and behaved organically to find evidence on non-humans instead. Another example of "lead by example" there though the team on in the round in general was good with this. Might also be a good opportunity to chat with them and offer to shadow them but it's fine you didn't and they never intimated they wanted training.
  
• Listened to your HoS, then beat your HoS for getting Raj'd but I appreciate you RPd it out post-treatment with them. 
  
• Some more specific "stuff I'd like to see from HoSes" you were good in general this round with relaying and communicating what you were doing and communicating/delegating to others: You would say what you were doing, the results of that when done, and if you found a thing for the detective to investigate you delegated and set the body up for them in the morgue. Good stuff. You also remembered after being busy to come back to dropped leads like this. Keeping up the communication seems to be something all HoSes recommend so that's always going to be a plus in my book. 
  
• I don't know if it was intentional but I'll talk about it anyway because it might be a good trick to use anyway: you arrested the chief at one point and brought them in for some fairly low-level antagonism. You offered to get them some tea and walked away that point to do it. You didn't rush that process, and incidentally gave them kind of enough time if they wanted to to escape. I feel like this is a pretty clever way to offer a bit of an escalatory path for an antag that's not quite done their bit yet, and also made the interrogation process a bit of an "opt-in" arrangement so everyone is happy to RP it out and spend a bit of time doing so. If it was an accident, it's something to keep doing I think, if not, it's a smart idea. It's not going to apply for every situation but it was a good one here.
  
• In turn, good avoiding "Sec clustering" around an event. An example, when you captured the clown and sent them to interrogation, you responded well to a call for assistance, but noticed when the interrogation was very crowded to go do something else. This is always I feel a tricky thing to do, we all want to be involved in a major thing but remembering you've got other people and leads to chase up (and you did) especially when you were the arrestee is always a good sign to me of someone with the right mentality. 
  
• You got dunked in the void at one point and then as a side thing got hamstrung with some EMP issues. It happens! But I appreciate you didn't get upset or break character and just go on with it. It's going to be an important skill as sometimes security doesn't win them all and you have to pick things back up. 
  
• Good snap judgement on the rajah'd Sam by bringing a doc out to you guys in the hall. Good work from the team in general on that one.
  

Summary

It's all pretty positive stuff. I think ultimately seeing some training opportunities (and if you're doing it and I got unlucky, hearing about them from other people giving feedback) is important, but from what I saw while watching and your general mentality I'd be pretty comfortable with you as a HoS. The one area I didn't get to see is how you handle things if it goes really pear-shaped, but (and don't take this wrong) hopefully I will and I can give feedback on that. I'm leaning fairly towards +1.

[Zhail]

I would say you're pretty competent. I can attest to the fact that Cynthia has trained a few new players in security while I was present or observing and seems to understand the correct way to go about it. After reading your application, it also looks like you know how to have fun and guide others into a fun experience instead of wanting to "win" against the antagonists, which is a strong trait for a HoS to have.

I also know that you're a capable officer and attempt to lead when a HoS is not present. However, when one is on the shift, you tend to step back and let them work as the designated leader. While it's a good thing to allow those who have experience with it lead the team, you won't grow if you don't step up and take charge even when a HoS is in the round. I don't know a single HoS player who would put you down for trying to help guide others and make their job easier.

To that end I would like to see more confidence leading, but I have a strong feeling that once you're in the boots this deficiency will quickly be filled in. +1