HoS Application: Star Aetherbeorn

[aetherbe0rn]

Usual character name: Star Aetherbeorn
BYOND username: Aetherbeorn
Discord username: utr7cht
Recommended by: None
Goon servers you play: Sylvester, Morty

Reason for application:
I'm applying for HoS because I want to foster an engaging and fair security experience for all players. The HoS is not just an enforcer but a leader, ensuring that security remains professional, fun, and balanced within the chaotic world of Space Station 13. I strive to create an environment where antagonists can shine, while also keeping the station’s crew safe from excessive harm. I believe my leadership skills and ability to adapt to various scenarios make me a strong candidate for this role.


Security experience (300 word minimum):

In my many(?) shifts aboard the station, I have handled a wide variety of cases, from minor thefts and bar brawls to more complex Syndicate operative schemes. I prioritize fair play, ensuring that criminals get due process while also keeping the station secure.

One of my strongest skills is probably de-escalation. I don’t rush to lethal force unless absolutely necessary! Instead, I focus on containment, negotiation, and teamwork with my fellow officers.

I’ve learned the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with the crew. A security officer who works with the station instead of against it gains valuable informants, allies, and cooperation during emergencies. I regularly check in with heads of staff to coordinate security efforts and ensure that department-specific issues are handled efficiently.

When working in a full security team, I embrace a structured approach, assigning officers to patrols, overseeing brig procedures, and handling high-priority threats first.

However, when I am the sole officer, I focus on triage—prioritizing major threats and trusting the crew to handle minor disputes.

I believe flexibility is key to being an effective security officer, as no two rounds are ever the same.

Ultimately, I aim to make security an engaging, fair, and fun experience for all players - officers, crew, and antagonists alike.
I always strive to give antagonists a chance to roleplay while keeping security interactions engaging for all involved. For example, when handling a traitor, I prefer questioning them and playing along with their gimmicks instead of immediately brigging them for extended durations. I believe my approach ensures that the game remains fun and dynamic for everyone.
Antagonists are roleplayers like everyone else, and we should give them a chance instead of just: "OHHH ANTAGS!! ARMORY!!! SPACE!! EXILE!!! EXECUTE!!!!"
...additionally, I adapt my playstyle based on the current security team composition. When working with a full team, I coordinate with my fellow officers, ensuring that we distribute responsibilities efficiently. However, when I am the sole security officer, I focus on prioritization—handling only the most pressing threats while relying on the crew for additional support.
Over time, I have dealt with a variety of situations, from rampaging changelings, gang wars, to elaborate and methodical Syndies. My ability to remain calm under pressure and make fair judgments has allowed me to probably even the most intense situations without unnecessary bloodshed.



Answer two or more of the following:

• What advice would you give to other sec players?
  
  Please, use communication effectively: Keep your team updated on ongoing investigations, criminals at large, and the general state of the station. A well-informed security team is far more effective than a group of lone wolves.
  
  Do know when to escalate force: Not every situation requires a baton to the head. Use de-escalation whenever possible to maintain order without unnecessary force.
  
  
• What was one of your favorite security moments? (Either playing as a sec officer or interacting with one)
  
  Security was fighting an archfiend in his pod. I tried fighting them with a pod taser, but that didn’t work. So, I asked the HoS to give me the pod launcher. What ensued afterwards was so hilarious I can’t fathom explaining it in words. But here’s a breakdown:
  
  The AI opened the blast doors so I could get a shot on the pod. As I fired, the HoS pressed the manual button for the blast doors, which in turn closed them! I blew myself up and a bit of the podbay, but somehow lived. It was a chaotic mess, but moments like these define the unpredictable and absurd fun that security often brings in SS13.
  
  
  
• What game improvements or changes do you think would benefit security players?
  
  I think that people would appreciate if they could bind their keys to a specific slot in their inventory for an item, especially Security players. Quickly pulling out a baton or gun or any type of item really would be a nice QoL change that I personally would enjoy.
  
  
• Describe any differences in your playstyle when part of a full security team and when being the only security officer.
  
  When part of a full security team, I focus on specialization. Assigning roles, ensuring patrols are covered, and making sure each officer is doing their job effectively. I rely more on communication and teamwork, allowing for a more methodical approach to station security. Usually, I take that leader role if HoS is not there. 
  
  
  
  When I’m the sole security officer, my playstyle shifts to prioritization. I focus on the most critical threats and rely on crew assistance when necessary. I avoid chasing small petty crimes (unless they're commited right infront of me) and instead focus on keeping the station stable. In such scenarios, diplomacy and deescalation become key tools in handling situations where brute force is... well. Not an option.
  
  

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.
  
  
  In space so vast, where chaos reigns, a station drifts with power wanes.
  Through halls of steel and neon light, the watchmen stand to guard the night.
  
  Through syndie bombs and changeling dread, they hold their ground, no tear is shed.
  A secman’s job is never done, yet still, we strive till shift is won.
• What's a security gimmick that you've ran or wanted to run?
  
  Many times I've wanted to try running a court. I've ran this once, not as Sec on the recieving end as a defendant for animal cruelty against a rodent.
  I believe my pay was cut from 300c to 100c since I didn't have a lawyer and had to plead guilty.
  I was fuming, so I kidnapped the lawyer that prosecuted me and sent him out in space via the chapel's coffin launcher.
  Courts kinda fail since they take way too much time and therefore allow antags to do whatever they want in the meantime. Alas! It is fun being a part of one nonetheless.
  
  
• Draw a picture!
  
  Here's a picture of my girlie Star that I made in ROBLOX Studio! I know it's technically not a drawing, but... It's the best I can do, these hands are not made for drawing...
  

Previous bans (while this will not affect your application lying about it will):
I've been banned once, it was about my lack of filter. I've said slurs, I believe. This was... long ago.

Note: I think the community doesn't really know me as well, since I've come back to SS13 about a week ago honestly, so I'm interested to see what people think of me in this short amount of time. 

[JOELED]

Today I decided to spectate a goonstation round, and ended up spending the entirety of it spectating you. It was a bit of a chaotic round, and difficult for security, but a significant portion of that struggle was due to your actions. You spent the majority of the shift ignoring the radio entirely (as well as people talking to you in person more often than not), choosing instead to pick and choose specific lines once every fifteen minutes or so to take out of context, misread, and reply to authoritatively in a way that left the rest of the sec team and AI spending more time trying to figure out what you were doing than they did actually dealing with the antags. You were believed to have been mindhacked or otherwise antagging due to how much trouble you caused. Some examples:

- You fired on a random crew member named Mindy in a pod because in your words, you saw the words "fire" and "mindy" in the sec radio and thought that was an order to take them down (it was an order to not fire at mindy.)

- Another member of sec said that they'd found a missing PDA you'd been looking for and left it on botany's couch. You misread that as them having found the power sink and left it in botany, and PDA messaged engineering that the power sink had been secured and to stop looking. You then proceeded to spend the next 5-10 minutes or so ignoring the radio messages of the entire sec team and AI begging you by name to explain where you'd found the power sink, and only eventually replied to a single message taken entirely out of context which you decided was about you shooting Mindy and not about the power sink.

- You ran into a fellow secoff arresting someone that had been clearly communicated many, many times over the sec comms to have been emagging borgs, grabbed the victim from them and ran off with them to interrogate them yourself without asking and despite the secoff already handling it. You didn't search them, because you hadn't been reading sec comms or paying attention to what the secoff whose arrest you stole was trying to say to you. When questioned on that after letting them go, you pulled them in for a second time to search them, and the same secoff was standing next to you begging you to do it in another room besides the main room of security due to the fact that there was no power and they were trying to fix it. You ignored that, too.

I realized that you had this app open, and felt it'd be unfair not to leave a comment. I just don't feel like you currently have the ability to process and respond to things that happen both in chat and around you in floating text. You never responded to calls for sec, you would randomly interrupt sec radio to give sweeping orders that directly contradicted what was going on, and actively sabotaged your team's ability to coordinate multiple times over within the span of a single 60 minute shift. Keeping track of what's going on in the chat and around you is difficult, but sometimes it's better to take a moment and reread what people are saying to you -- especially in moments of relative calm, which is when these misunderstandings primarily took place.

[aetherbe0rn]

Gonna be really honest, I was absolutely tired and decided to get off after that round. This was just one of probably many rounds that I'll be absolutely garbage, because usually I'd probably pay more attention, but comms were being spammed 24/7 and I was just not focused at all. It was pretty late at night, like 11pm or so for me. But yes, I understand where this is coming from. However, if you had seen any of my other rounds, I believe you would've rethought about making this post in my opinion.

TL;DR: I had a bad round.

[Lefinch]

I have seen other rounds, and while I feel it's not quite there yet for feedback I do want to make a suggestion: Your general conversations on discord to me raise some flags about your mentality for a HoS role which I'll explain.

Just a brief search through of your recent history for examples:

"how the fuck is the butcher's knife remotely fair? a 5 second knockdown for just hitting a throw is absolutely insane, and then you can't even be cloned afterwards? who thought this was a good idea?"

In the questions segment (it is a question!)

and the exchange while discussing things with several HoS players in the same channel:

you misunderstand
i said I just do win. not that I strive to win
simply too skilled
ive gotten sec practically mastered like the back of my hand is what i want to say

First, admire the confidence! and from what limited viewing I've seen so far the practical skills of being a security -officer- are down. That's a useful part of the HoS toolkit: it does help if they can teach be an example to other officers when they're needed in my opinion. But it's only part of their toolkit. 

However, to me what seems to me like losing your temper on the questions section of discord and to me what seems like a developing pattern of "Every time I "Win" I am good but every time a thing stops me It is Bad" at least in how you're communicating is painting a picture that might impact your application, or at least is for me. Please bear in mind this is just my personal post and others may disagree with this assessment. 

I'd suggest thinking a bit about how you're communicating with players there. It's definitely okay to be confident, and it's okay to be frustrated, but demonstrating you've got a good way to cope with both (such as "huh, I think this feature might need tweaking, let me make a forum post about how I'd fix it and see if others agree" and hopefully some give-and-take when talking with people post round) and if you're curbstomping antagonists: hopefully knowing when to give some space for them for round pacing (which you may be, hence why this isn't a review yet, just some feedback) and how the players involved might be feeling seeing comments like:

"hey you guys got any reccomendations for HoS 'prerequisites'? I've got security down and now it's just kind of boring to play it since I always kinda... win over antags.

I stress that this isn't a -1 for me currently. I have been watching a few rounds and haven't seen the behaviour Joeled highlighted, though I would keep in mind that behaving negatively in a round, (and failing completely to communicate effectively in a round is pretty negative for a HoS) is going to hurt an application for every 9 rounds you have that are good. Just something I'd personally keep in mind as the application period continues. You're welcome to dismiss it.

[aetherbe0rn]

Yeah I was pretty angry at the fact that officers were dying one by one (myself included) so I made a question while fuming at that time, but when I did eventually calm down, I said:
"it's whatever, I get it, for 7 TC it's a stellar weapon and that it's gimmick is behind throwing the weapon. So, do you guys have ways to counter the weapon?"
And I did get a response and I left it at that.

I feel like I overexaggerated when I say "I win over antags." This doesn't mean I punish antags every time. When I do eventually catch the same guy over and over, I eventually just let them go for once to not have the round go stale and in the end I want that guy to have fun!

Still, thank you for the feedback. I'll make sure to not play sec while I'm not tired or something like that. ❤️

[Waffleloffle]

personally don't think you're ready for it, just from what's been demonstrated in this thread.

HoS is probably the most stressful role in the game. it is also a role where your ability to handle situations can feel very personal - and when (not if!) you fuck up, or make a judgment call you regret in the heat of things, or get absolutely blindsided by the most tryhard antag you've ever seen, you need to have that ability to set things aside both during and after a round without lashing out. from what's been shown here, and by your own admission, you currently have a tendency to let the anger get to you

work on letting go, I'd say. too many things Happen in a round for a good HoS to get caught up on any single slight or stumble. try to keep up with the rest of your squad, communicate, and ask for help if there's anything that's grinding your gears. sharpen up your conflict resolution skills too, since they are just as critical as being able to robust with the best of 'em

[444explorer]

Wasn't originally going to comment as I haven't seen much of you, but complaining about feedback you've gotten in the discord is a massive no from me. When you apply for Head of Security, you should be doing so accepting any judgement you get. What you write, how you respond and how others reply all will effect other peoples judgement and that's fine. How you act in the Discord is also important - Being Head of Security means you're expected to be cool and be chill - People will be looking up to you for guidance, after all.

Between your presence in the discord and how you've handled the feedback on this application, I would not be comfortable with you being made Head of Security currently. -1.

[aetherbe0rn]

I understand where you're coming from, and I appreciate the feedback. My intention was never to dismiss valid criticism but to express my frustration with the fact that some of the feedback seemed to come from people who haven’t had the chance to interact with me much in-game.

I do agree that when applying for HoS, it’s important to accept judgment, and I’m fully open to constructive feedback. I just wanted to highlight the concern that some of the feedback might be coming from a place of limited interaction.

That said, I’ll take your points to heart and continue to work on how I present myself, both in the Discord and in-game.

[Silent Majority]

I believe you lack experience and temperment.

Since you seem to be concernee with your "win" ratio, I will give advice. bare in mind this advice applied to me about two years ago.

Its not a competition. Its not about winning. Or losing. But attitude can definitely make you lose.

Learn to communicate more, interact more, and learn to exercise some restraint and not "trying to win" or even thinking about "winning"

If they had fun, they won. If you have fun, you've won.

Communicate more, relax, take in the players not just the chase.

I truly wish you the absolute best.

[Lefinch]

To give you some feedback, and in a positive note. Let's break down a very, very recent round, in fact the one that happened mere minutes ago!

I'd personally say this was a more challenging security shift: Some very fun work from antags caused quite a bit of chaos that required prioritisation. I have some generalised views about the security situation as handled but don't think it applies in the context of providing you feedback.

- You were much more communicative, paying attention to commands. I appreciate you also engaged with talking with the AI even after the situation of them being rogue was resolved. This is something that often gets forgotten with security officers with tunnel vision.
- While there were moments of disagreement, you didn't get mad about it and deferred for cohesion, this is an important HoS skill.
- I would keep in mind personally that taking hold of a prisoner being held by someone else is probably not a great idea for various reasons, aside from just being a bit rude. Check first, or let -them- swirly the poor prisoner.
- You paid attention to the captain before a HoS was present, and as best I can tell paid attention to a HoS when one turned up.
- When a security assistant asked you for a sitrep you did reply. That's good, something that's important to do even in a crisis. Leaving people out without information is a rough thing.

I put this here to demonstrate that people are watching, and good conduct that'll support an application will be noticed. Hopefully as you continue to play that'll come across. I sometimes think turning around a bad impression and listening and maintaining critique from feedback can and will help.

[Drakios]

So, I have watched Star more closley since I saw them applying for HoS. 

I had interactions with them I think before they applied or it was while they did it. 
This is from a few rounds were I was HoS and they played Star as captain these round, this was before I knew they would apply for HoS.
In one of the rounds (and this was I few weeks ago I think so I dont remember it 100%) my team and I caught an antag, I dont know anymore what they did but it was enough for me to say they should be exiled. Star walked in as captain and demanded that we executed them, if I remember correctly they didnt do anything that bad to justify that, so I spoke to her and said something in the line of, exile should be enough, are you sure captain, they seemed very eager to me to kill them so much so that I OOC thought they might be mindhacked or something, I think I even asked if they died that shift could be wrong tho.
Anyway after I said that I think exile should be enough they agreed and so we exiled them.

In a different round they were captain again, and while I was in main sec talking with my team while we were looking for an traitor they stormed in, said we need to execute this traitor. When I asked why we need to do that they responded if I remember corectly with , because they changed the station name or somethign like that, after that we got attacked by a pod from that traitor I belive, it was nothing to big, but they rushed over to the armory and opend it without talking to sec first, wich is to some degree okay because they are the captain, I just said to them the armory is to much and a bad Idea to open for this, they dissagreed at the moment, told my team to gear up and hunt this traitor, at that moment the best I coudl do was try to watch all the stuff that was happenign at the same time, while talking to a very kill thirsty cap and trieng to figure out if something is up with them. 
Threw all this chaos a lot happend and a big portion of sec blew up because if I remember correctly the pod launcher exploaded a lot of the podbay.

After everything calmed down they seemed to agree that it was a bad idea to open the armory for that.

So, after I had these first rounds of seeing star as captain and before that just as a secoff I was confused, so much so that I even asked them after I saw they applied as HoS if they were a captain in the last few days, wich they agreed to and they seemed to understand why I asked them that question, because they refered to these rounds and said in character that they have DiD and this behaviour wa sbecause of a personallity, im okay with people playing characters like that, my character Roselin has also some sort of DiD, but going out this much as a command role is problematic especially as captain. I had a talk with them they said IC that they need therapy wich I IC agreed to so they can "work" on the DiD problem, we had someone Rping a therapiest this round I sended them to them and either the same roudn or another round I talked to star again and they said they worked on it in therapy, since then I havnt really seen them doing somethign similar as captain.

Another big thing that concerns me, is their judgment, I cant remember when it was but either I was an antag or I was HoS, but I overheard them talking to someone and saying that if someone kills someone that person should be executed, I wil lsay I dont have the full context in my head from this moment becaus it was a while ago, but this combined with the stuff from before rised my concerns.

Alright this is from a round that was just now as of the time of writing this, I decided to spectate Star for the round to give a more fair reply and see how they do in sec.
The round startet calm with antags slowly building up their stuff talking over comms and such, after a while a secass joined, and asked for some help with everything, and Star reacted fast and offered help and to teach them wich is a good and nice thing to do. To summarize the teachign from what I saw, It seemed very rushed, Star started with showing them the machine to get the equiment but didnt explain anything of the equiment, after that they got to the sec console, and Star explaine dthem that this is one very important tool wich is correct, but what I think they did in my opinion very badly is how fast they explained everythign there and the way they did it, they show the console, logged in and typed secmate all by themselfe, and this very fast, they didnt let the secass do it themselfes at first, they just said very fast"login, secmate and voila" or something like that, after that someone was asked to be marked for arrest over secradio, the secass and star saw that, so star showed them the record list and told them to find the number for the person they are looking for, but someone has beaten them to it. After that Star showed them the Sectech, again all of this very fast, after that they very briefly explained the record track and then said thats pretty much the basics, in theory their training didnt comepletly stop there but it seemed like that was what Star was going to show them for now, they took them with them for a bit while they were lookign for a traitor and also explained them how to use a pod wich is nice but then a bit later a problem what I could forsee happend.
Another person was supposed to be put to arrest, Star made sure that this time they can do it, so they walked with the secass to the console and as I thought the secass had not much of a clue how to do it, so star had to explain it again this time a bit more slowly, showed them the login, explained they need to write secmate mate etc.

So the big problem I saw with that is the way they teached that secass, they never asked them if they had any questions, they never really explained more in depth what all these things do, for example all the utility option that you can get from the vendor, they rushed the training, it felt like they wanted to speedrun the training, they also told the secass that they as a secass will mostly sti behind the desk wich I strongly disagree with, I dont think secass should be taught that, its better to say they can either go on patrol and help the best they can while being careful or they can help via sitting behind the desk, I personally think it would sound boring if an secoff tells me that I have to sit mostly in main sec behind the desk. 
They also, never teached the secass how to use the barrier or the forensic scan, or how to write a ticket, all these things are important to know, because secass dont have as many tools as an secoff, they also didnt teach how to arrest or how to use the flash etc. they ignored a lot of the basic stuff a secoff should know, and I think its because they rushed it.
I also looked at why they might have done it, but there was no real pressure, there were plenty of other secoffs running around they could've had more than enough time to camly explain how all this stuff works, for me it looked like they wanted back to action as fast as possible instead of teaching the secass, ofcourse I could be wrong with that but this is how it looked to me.

Teaching new secass or players is very important for an HoS, explaining how things work is also very important, asking people if they have questions and encouraging them to ask for help if needed, is also very much important.
Yes this was I think the first time I saw Star teach someone, but if they teach in this way more often then this is a bad sign for me.

To a more positive note, they are a good player when it comes to mechanics, but just being good at the game dosnt make a good HoS.

Another good thing Ive seen is that they changed a lot of their behaviour accordingly to the critic they got, wich is a very good thing, but I think they need more time to solidify all of the critic and the change in their behaviour. Judging from the other replys I see they have a lot to work on and I dotn think its very possible to solidify all this in such a short time, it will probably take a few more months until the applications will be judged and im sure Star will work on their behavior more in the meantime and change how they do things, but I also dont think this short time will be enough to solidify these changes completly and I would suggest taking more time to think and learn. 

So of this moment in time I tend more to a -1, I see potantial in them in the future but not as of right now, I still wish them good luck and that they still will try their best, I hope my replay was somewhat understandeble and helpful