HoS App: Nefarious6th / Marcy Meyow
#1
Usual character name: Marcel Meyow / JANUS / Star Owen / Aino Takalan if I make a mistake in character setup
BYOND username: nefarious6th
Discord username (if you are on our discord): Monacarrow#7630
Recommended by (if applicable): none 
Goon servers you play: all; mostly RP/RPO/Morty/Sylv for Security


Reason for application:
Security is my second-most played job, and I find it fun to interact with a variety of players. I float through timezones and servers, but there’s a need still for experienced players to take up the mantle of HoS to help improve round quality. I don’t think I’m a superstar of Security or remarkably memorable, but I try to be patient and consistent and frequent in my interactions. These things matter the most of anything I could bring to the table. Mostly I find I’m the first officer to join rounds, and I’ve done a lot of rounds solo, with new Security Officers, and with no HoS/NTSO support. I’d like the ability to work more holistically for the station, and have a better-equipped, more respected position to be able to teach others and have that feedback be taken to heart.

On RP, I try to be empathetic and give chances to develop interesting narratives. I’ve done some cool storytelling being more compassionate to antags and being treated more compassionately as an antag, holding funerals for officers and antags alike, and trying desperately to help my "sick" friends who had endless and eldritch hunger.

On Classic, I always try to communicate with my team and be a really good supporter: I believe from experience that the biggest, baddest weapon on Classic is teamwork.

For combat skill, I am so painfully unrobust that it sometimes horseshoes back around into miraculous robustness because I have walked into a cloning room with three people with guns and disarmed them all only because I didn’t realize they were trying to get rid of me! I can hold my own on Classic often enough and have had some cool rounds dueling a nukie commander as a bartender or beating on 5 revs at once.


Security experience (300 word minimum):
I dive into soloSec because sometimes the only thing holding others back from joining is seeing there’s not someone they can rely on, and I want to be that person. I know from experience too that a HoS in-round gets more officers to jump in. I’m unafraid of taking the plunge to get others involved and think with HoS permissions, it would let other players see on those rounds that there's someone capable who they can work with if they join.

In some of my Less Epic Rounds, I’ve had to curb teammates for demanding armory openings for non-hostile antags, or rushing into Botany after a weedbombing by an unknown suspect with the intent to start blasting all four botanists. I’ve had to clamp down on other Command members trying to kill antag Caps within the first 30 minutes of an RP round. In these situations, I also wished I conferred more authority to stop the treatment of other players like Necessary Evils To Be Destroyed.

I keep my perspectives fresh by working with a number of different players and mixing up which servers I’m on because I think there’s valuable attitude take-aways and stress-testing to get from Classic, and a lot of patience take-aways to get from RP. Sometimes I help Security in novel ways; I started my Security adventures as a Mime Deputy torpedoing a rogue AI on Nightshade and picked up an appreciation for how much work a brobocop cyborg can put in. My skills in these roles include dispensing burgers, stopping knife fights through the power of infallible cyborg shoving, and silently pursuing and running into dangerous criminals while on a segway.

I did rounds on RP1 during the tail-ends of tides and through some smaller spikes and have had time to work with other players and reflect on my own approaches. My first two HoSes were Sundance and Leenai, and I try to take their wisdom into every interaction; they both modelled to me having Classic + RP-stylings as HoS; the good faith extension of interest in storytelling, like guarding a special button for the Captain’s voluntary and murderous gameshow, but also the ability to discern when it's time to switch to no-nonsense mode.

On Classic, I found that I was naturally working well with my teammates because of high communication and expediency that I developed on RP. On one cool round I was a Sec Assistant with a new officer on Revs, and we were the only Sec, but I organized implanting in orders of priority and we ended up winning and doing so in relatively peaceful means despite bad odds, opting to bucklecuff some of the headrevs. A different moment was as a Vice Officer where I saved the HoS’s gear and disarmed three traitors, then cloned the HoS back just in time for round end, and even though I didn’t arrest anyone and wrap things up with a nice bow, it was one of my cooler showings. Security on Main has never gotten easier, but I love the camaraderie. I definitely wouldn’t be discouraged from stopping in from time-to-time as HoS or NTSO because there’s so many quality Sec players there and I truly believe my strength in those rounds is my team.


Answer two or more of the following:
  • What advice would you give to other sec players?
  1. You can’t and won’t save everyone. On one of my first RP Sec rounds, round end, there were 6 or 7 changelings and someone got mad at me in OOC for letting them die. I had no idea what moment this was referring to, and felt bad about it, but after playing more of those 6-7-8 antag rounds on RP, I had to realize I can’t take that with me, not when I walked away feeling I put in my absolute all. So give everything your all and get comfortable with being told it’s never enough. And still give your all after, because it’s fun and worthwhile, for you!
  2. Talking is super powerful. On my first RP round, I got a call the mime was stabbing the clown. I pulled them away from each other and later found the mime in the bar, so I approached with a pen and paper to ask what was up. They wrote me back “f*ck you”, but I kept the conversation going and said that I wanted to be sure that no one was bullying them. I gave them a ticket for the trouble, but when I left the bar I got a PDA message saying they were sorry. And they didn’t cause any problems after. It was a tide, there’s general SS13 culture about what mime-clown relationships look like, and this person thought I was about to beat them down. All they needed was to be shown a little patience and persistence.
  3. A nugget of wisdom passed on to me from an old thread: "Your job isn't just catching crime either! You're here to help the crew. See a guy who looks like he may be seriously hurt? Bring them over to medbay. Clown tripped on their shoes? Help them up. An explosion just happened and people are currently dying in the breach? Pull them/throw them out to a safe place." It may not be the Big Prize in the scheme of a round, but picking up someone who needs a hand reminds me why I play.
  4. The last and most important one is to put your foot down, and know when that’s the best option. This is true dealing with self-antags and greytiders, who I try to give all my best once, and once only. This is true reigning in Sec players who clearly are only thinking about winning for themselves and getting into the armory! And this is especially true when I have nothing left to give in a round and need to decide it’s in my best interests to cryo out for 15 minutes, 40 minutes, or the rest of the round. Being attuned to how much more others are really going to give is important. Being attuned to how much more you are really going to give is more important.
  • What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
I can’t choose just one! (Sorry!)

Once I was solo on a round where the HoS and another officer had to cryo and I got deputized. The round got wild fast and some engineers tried to throw me and the only other latejoining detective (a newer player) into the singularity. The few minutes after that were full of anxiety while I sat with my teammate and asked if they were okay and we had a kind of nice and heartfelt RP conversation about that moment; this was a player I had interacted with and had to stop in a prior round, that had a rocky start in Sec, but by that moment I felt they had really gained a lot of confidence, understanding, and respect and handed my gifted HoS beret I had to them. Seeing that growth was rewarding.

A recent one on Horizon was where the HoS slipped on a banana peel, and decided to permabrig it, and I set up a security record for it. A monkey in a spacesuit came on station and I let them visit the peel. Then they wanted to see Stirstir, so I said okay, then went to look at cameras for something in the Computer Core. Someone reported gunshots, and I went to the Brig to find the window broken and Stirstir dead. The roboticist vowed to bring Stirstir back by any means necessary but needed my baton in the Debris Field, so I said okay. He lost it, but got SR to save Stirstir! I played the rest of the round, getting shot and helped up by the CE, making an arrest of two traitors at once, and did it all without my baton or remembering to get surgery. We learned at the end that the banana peel we brigged had actually been the monkey’s stealth storage! I continued the round without gear, but I walked away from it feeling super capable and with the reinforced recognition that what made everything work out that round wasn’t the tools or tasers. Confidence and communication through all things, good leadership and being dependable for (and depending on) the crew were what mattered.

My absolute favorite: I was solo on RPO on Horizon; I found the hall between Medbay and Security was blocked by a clown running a “secure checkpoint”. I let it go, since the clown had permission from the RD who was the only acting head, but over time the clown started asking for more and more asinine documentation, like spinal fluid samples. Then I saw there was yet ANOTHER clown on the station. And ANOTHER. In the true spirit of Clownin’ Around, one of the clowns decided to play a game with Security to test my response time to crisis alerts. Thankfully I won the game and saved the clown from loading herself into the crusher. Unfortunately, the clown thought it was a CGI crusher and dove in to demonstrate. The crusher was, in fact, Very Real. After my brief mourning for the crushed clown, I went back into the station to find the Secure Checkpoint Clown was trying to drown in the pool. He told me he was made of the fungus found from maintenance so he could never truly die. He then did appear to do just that, but months later I met the same clown on Cog1, running an equally as secure checkpoint.
 

Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
On teams, I take the time to go off-station and do S&R stuff because I’d like to think I’m not too shabby at tracking and because I’m a tough nut with a will to survive no matter the odds. I also take a lot of onus for finding my other officers and making sure they’re okay. I’ll work with Med to make new disks for them when their old ones are destroyed, I’ll traverse the trench to find lost new officers, and I’ll fly myself into space to recover teammates’ bodies. It's rewarding for me to help others and keep all the ducks in a row. I can definitely be the leader when it comes to comms, and even get a little adamant about people checking in or connecting with teammates without Sec comm access, since keeping everyone’s heads up is critical. I mentioned Sec is my second most-played job; Silicon is my first and has made me talkative and good at monitoring many things at once.

Solo, I connect with Heads of Staff and start up conversations with everyone I can find so they know I’m reachable. In collaboration with crew reports, I keep my eyes to PDA for crisis alerts and scanner checkpoint alerts since those are my eyes across the station. I use the arrest status to work with my best pal Beepsky, because Beepsky is unironically my second-best tool when I solo on long RP rounds, only after my words.

My only other addition is I probably play 80% of rounds deaf, though I find lots of opportunities to still take charge, engage antagonists, and problem-solve on the fly, just by what I can see around me and hear on general comms. I (very liberally) utilize the PDA to update my team because no access to comms =/= no responsibility. A bonus to all my solo and deaf time is that it's given me balance between teamwork and communication trying to stay in the loop and give my own updates, but also independence and decisiveness when I don't always have an immediate way to reach out to others. 

I make a point of having a presence over PDA and capitalizing on face-to-face interactions. I’ve done duo rounds with HoSes where we PDA’d each other or did all face-to-face meetings which have been great. I also don’t see anything wrong with an all-PDA team or asking for face-to-face meetings on RP, and I think that would be kind of fun considering how rare in-person meetings are and how useful PDA can be in situations like having compromised Sec comms. 


Answer one or more of the following fun questions (because it's important for the HoS to be fun):
Draw a picture!
[Image: marcyportrait.png]

Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will): 
None

Thanks for your time.
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#2
ive had lots of great sec shifts with nef on rp, they handle things very well! i always see them trying to talk things out before using anything else and they are always friendly to everyone no matter if someone is crew or antag, they treat them both well and fairly, they communicate well and do great work solving crime scenes and helping deal with crimelords, they are always someone i know i can rely on when we get lots of things going on at once, they are also great to talk to when its a quiet shift too!

overall i think they would be a great friendly hos! and would always improve the shift +1
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#3
Excellent player and person. The feedback you provide to others shows you're attentive - always very detailed with observations of how people have improved or what you believe they could improve on, I've had you help me when I was an HoS getting pulled in multiple directions and calmly and gently explain to me the situation of things going on, gently remind me that it's okay to lethally defend myself, and ultimately help bring order to chaos.

You were there to help me, and for the times I've had you as an officer you've always been a talk-first and try to give people multiple chances-type. You have a sense of independence as an officer, dishing out reasonable punishment without needing my HoS input and go out of your way to facilitate RP if people are trying to do something and that is something I always look out for.

+1, easily.
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#4
Yes. While It's not every day I see you, your application, behavior and the shifts I've seen of you give me confidence that you would do good with that whitelist. As Cal stated, you are well tempered, and aren't some dirt harry, shoot first ask questions later kind of officer. solid +1
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#5
Easy +1, can't wait to see Marcel as HoS
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#6
(06-11-2021, 11:44 AM)nefarious6th Wrote:
  1. Clown tripped on their shoes? Help them up.

-10,000.  Any true officer knows clown's exist to be laughed at as they suffer.

In all seriousness, the application is really well done.  The app on it's own isn't enough to recommend, but I'll do my best to keep an eye out.
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#7
I count 4 ears on that picture, 2 cat and 2 human ones. If you think you can get away with this blatant powergaming then you're wrong!

In all seriousness, Nef is super self-aware player, thoughful and keep everyones best interests in mind. I think they're a perfect candidate.
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#8
Nightshade players and their damn essays

+1
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#9
Easy +1. Nef is great about making sure the team stays communicating and having a presence on the shift. There's some sec players you dont even know they're playing that round unless you happen to stumble in to them, but with Nef's great communication and interaction you'll always know they're there.

Nef always tries to talk first, and I've never seen them over-escalate an issue. You know if you're dealing with them you're gonna have a chance for great RP. They're the exact kind of security player I'd want to see whether I'm on the team, or an antag.

As for the deaf thing, I think having a regular HoS who has the deaf trait would be a great way to re-incentivize (is that a word?) the use of PDA's on the sec team. It seems they've been slowly ignored lately.

P.S Wonderful drawing.
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#10
having marcel on the team is always fun, one of the few people i see consistently use and respond to the pda security line (necessary via trait or not, still impressive to see). nef cares a lot about the quality of their work, definitely a good fit for hos. +1
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#11
I've really avoided writing this, so first of all, I'm sorry that it's coming a bit late. Some of this is feedback I should have given on your Mentor application, but at the end of the day it wasn't necessary there. I do feel that it's necessary here.

TL;DR: -1 from me.

You have a lot of strengths that you bring to Goonstation in general and Security in particular. I appreciate that you're thoughtful and responsive, and that you pay careful attention to the many threads that are always in play at any given time. You are good at handling both big and small issues that arise during a round, and I have no doubt that you're continuing to do the same thing even with the extra information coming at you as a Mentor now. It's a lot to juggle, and you do it well.

But all that being said, my first response when I see you join a security team is a mild "Oh... hm, I hope this goes okay." Not because I think you're going to be awful or anything like that. You're very conscientious. But you are also very critical and take things very personally, and more than once I have seen things go sour either during or after a round because you got upset and started calling people out for decisions or actions that you disagreed with. I get nervous that I am going to do something that upsets you and that I'll get called out on Discord for it - though probably not by name - after the round ends.

One of the important unspoken things that a HoS provides, especially on RP, is a sense of stability and emotional tone in a round. I've referred to it when talking to others as being "emotionally robust." It's about not letting people get to you, about being a cool head and a stabilizing influence when tempers are starting to run high, and a gentle prod of encouragement if someone on the team is too timid or if someone is giving up on the round. People will always be very critical of the HoS, and if the HoS takes that criticism personally or lets it get to them, things are going to slowly sour, and if the HoS player is willing to lash out, then it is going to sour faster.

I have seen people leave the round and the server over the criticism you've given them and the way that you did it.

If I +1 someone for Head of Security, I know that they will be a consistently gentle, positive, encouraging, and stabilizing influence on rounds. I know that they will handle interpersonal conflict with grace, and that they will de-escalate things both in and out of character, so that everyone involved can have fun. This includes post-round and on Discord.

At the end of the day, I have seen enough of the opposite from you that despite your many other good qualities, I do not feel comfortable recommending you for Head of Security.
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#12
(07-02-2021, 12:41 PM)jan.antilles Wrote: One of the important unspoken things that a HoS provides, especially on RP, is a sense of stability and emotional tone in a round. I've referred to it when talking to others as being "emotionally robust." It's about not letting people get to you, about being a cool head and a stabilizing influence when tempers are starting to run high, and a gentle prod of encouragement if someone on the team is too timid or if someone is giving up on the round. People will always be very critical of the HoS, and if the HoS takes that criticism personally or lets it get to them, things are going to slowly sour, and if the HoS player is willing to lash out, then it is going to sour faster.
I'm not going to give an +1 or -1 since I'm not very active on RP anymore but I will say that I've seen you take things quite a bit too personally and I agree with Jans points, I've seen you take some indifference by people and think that they are purposely ignoring you and I've seen you passively aggressively complain a bit on Discord. While I would say that every HoS has the right to complain a bit about rounds that it gets a bit touchy and hard to know what to say when you do this especially since its hard to tell whos in the right and wrong and it makes the situation a bit uncomfortable. I think you're generally good as security but need to understand that people in this game just don't care a lot and that its not a personal grudge against you to ignore you just because they don't know you. While RP can be somewhat meta cliquey when I've changed characters I've been able to easily get into situations and talk to people just by.... Talking to people and taking the first action.
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#13
I've been debating with the idea of posting on this App for some time now. Writing this is already giving me a lot of anxiety and I'm scared of saying the wrong things, and/or not making my points clear enough so they get misinterpreted. But I think its for the best I do leave something here.

This is going to be a -1 from me.

I want to preface this by saying that I do stand mostly fully behind what I said on your Mentor App. I do think you are a very insightful person with a big presence overall. Your contributions to this game through the Wiki, through PRs on GitHub, and your willingness to be attentive to most threads on the forum are all really great and that is why I recommended you for Mentor. That's all well and good, but we're talking about Security here, and this is where the problems set in...

I'm just going to say it straight out and I'm sorry if this seems insensitive because that is not my intent, but I simply enjoy my time less as Security when I am on a team with you because it feels like I am constantly walking on eggshells. I am echoing what Jan said more or less while adding my own thoughts and experiences, but while you are insightful, you are very critical of others and can take things very personally, and you make this criticism known either through constructive means on Forum posts, which is fine, but more commonly through LOOC ingame, or passive aggressively on Discord after a round has ended. Both of those, I personally, have been on the receiving ends of. When I screw up, I want to know about it so I can improve, and I told you this a few months ago. But there's a key difference between taking it to DMs so it can discussed constructively, and just laying into people in LOOC in the middle of a game in front of everyone, because you felt you were being ignored, which is a very common gripe that you have with people, and mainly me, or maybe there was another occurrence that made you upset. No one likes being put on blast, and people also don't like seeing people be put on blast, but doing it in game through LOOC is a very quick way to sour the mood for everyone involved, and not just the people you have issues with, but everyone else. It leads to situations where it feels like, when I am speaking to you in game, I am always walking on eggshells and that ONE slip up is enough for me to get chewed out over in front of everyone, and this has happened, and very recently at that and I'd like to provide that as an example here...

When I was HoS on Atlas, we had two Sec Assistants that joined in quick succession of one another. One of them was you on a character I was not immediately familiar with, and I did not know this at the time. Naturally, I assumed that you were a new player to Sec, so I asked you what your experience with Sec was so I could plan out either a mentor plan to show you the ropes and then partner you up with a Sec Officer so you could shadow them, or let you loose to do what you want, either would have been your decision to make. But you said you'd been around for a few days now so you knew some stuff, and I was happy to see how enthusiastic you were to do things, and keep in mind at this time I still didn't know it was you playing this character. So I decided to have a little fun and put you and the other assistant on ticket duty, where I asked you to ticket anything that was even remotely illegal. This is because I felt this would lead you into some funny RP situations with other members of the crew and lead to some fun half-hearted conflict that no one would actually take all that seriously. I let you loose after chatting with you for a bit and getting to know your character, you did your things and eventually you ended up willingly signing a Chaplain contract, which is perfectly fine to do!

As the round progressed, things went from so chill that I had the chance to sit and talk in Sec with another member of Security regarding their backstory and learn a little more about their character, to a million things happening at once. It went from 0 people in the brig with no crimes reported, to 2 people in the brig with multiple crimes reported and it got out of hand fast. Mine, and the rest of Sec's focus was on the brigged people to make sure they were treated fairly, and a full investigation was performed. This is where I dedicated my attention, but during this, you were talking over everyone and me while we were trying to process two people, on the TINY Atlas Sec HQ with nowhere to move. You were referring to the Chaplain contract, the MD having a Katana, and not being able to legally do anything in this investigation due to being legally biased, as one of the people we had brigged had murdered the Chaplain, which you yourself had ties to. It got so chaotic, I had to call in the NTSO to give me some assistance. Earlier in the round, you were also referring to legal procedure and the fact that no one in Sec has a Legal Degree, but I didn't respond to this, not because I wasn't interested or was ignoring you, but because I had no idea how to RP in this situation, and I was also thinking of other things ongoing in the round. I took FULL NOTICE of what you were saying, and my plan was, after the two people we had brigged were processed and released, to confront you and ask you about these matters so we could further escalate the RP. 

Maybe I made a mistake not letting it known that you were heard, and I'm sorry, but we didn't even get the chance to escalate the RP in good faith, because you then just started chewing me out in LOOC for ignoring you in front of most of Sec and the brigged prisoners, which is then when I knew that it was you playing this Sec Assistant, and given our history of me getting chewed out for ignoring you despite that never EVER being my intent, my heart just sank seeing as how, despite me doing everything in my power to make your round enjoyable as a Sec Assistant, I had slipped up, broken those eggshells, and now I was getting chewed out publicly, and the round was immediately soured for me, and I had to cryo because I simply did not want to play in the round anymore and have my soured attitude ruin other peoples experiences.

I'll be honest, I'm concerned. I'm concerned that if you get HoS, you will let someone in Sec get to you on a personal level, and will then proceed to put them on blast in LOOC or on Discord after the fact, and potentially dissuade people from picking Sec when you're HoS, or at worse, picking Sec ever again. If I were to recommend you as HoS, I need to be confident that you wont register things on a personal level. No one is intentionally negative to your characters because they know that you are playing as them, and no one is intentionally ignoring your characters because they know you are playing as them. The flow of each SS13 round is unique, and bad circumstances are sometimes unavoidable and someone will leave said bad circumstances feeling more bitter than the other. But after this bad circumstance has passed, it needs to be deescalated so the round can get back on track, and as HoS you are someone with immense power, and you need to be able to recognise when a situation is going bad and stop it, and how to deescalate it to keep folks happy and in high spirits. Putting someone on blast in LOOC or after the fact on Discord is not deescalation. What it does is it turns the situation from an IC dispute, to an OOC dispute, and that is the worst thing you can get from these situations.

In order for me to recommend you as HoS, I need to see that you can be "emotionally robust" enough to not let personal issues get in the way of your judgement, and to not let personal issues further escalate conflict into OOC disputes. If OOC disputes happen, it is yet even more important to try and deescalate those. It is important to hold no grudges that could potentially effect attitude towards someone in future rounds.

Overcome this, and we will potentially have a recommendation on our hands, but right now with all things considered, and all experiences put into play, I cannot recommend you as a Head of Security.
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#14
Hi, we decided to deny this application for now, due to mixed feedback from the community and the admin team. Feel free to reapply in 60 days from now!
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