I just wanted to ask PF if they were following SoP that was it its only secs job to pick up any contraband that's not, A going to Sci, B can't fit in the locker.
And its part or the PFs job to do this so i just droped by to ask if they have/get any contraband if they did.
Very well, I retract my earlier concerns. It's easy to jump to conclusions, especially when you're tired.
In future, though, maybe trust Pathfinders (and/or the RD) to do their job a little more. Relations are getting strained, and breathing down everyone's neck(s) won't help them get unstrained.
(We didn't have anything anyway, for the record.)
Yes this why i just asked if you have then walked off, i have seen lots of PFs that never try to just walk in wareing contraband themselfs.
But at the same time i know not to be pushy and thats why all i did was ask then walk off.
Akky's player here, took me a while to find the time to sit down and write something cohesive, sorry, let's just say a reply would've been swifter if OP was posted a week before or after, instead of this week. Maybe there's an advantage in that, however, a little bit of emotional buffer zone from my week of absence. This entire thing has been brewing for a while on discord, with the tajara becoming a regular topic whenever I decide to play him, quite a heated one at that as people like Kered and ITR straight out calling for my removal, which I'll be referring to later in the post, this complaint thread does not exist in a vacuum. One thing I can clearly sense is that people do care, either about the community or their own comfort, but either way, there's a good degree of investment here and I respect that, which I'll show by forming the best response I can. So let's get started.
Before I start responding to the individual protesters I'd like to make note of somebody I'm a little surprised not to see in the thread: the player of Pasotel Makino. Pasotel is worth mentioning because they are one of the first of Akram's rivals and it is almost like the rest followed his blueprint. An argument can be formed from his example that will be clearer by the end of the paragraph and that I'll make sure to repeat throughout the post. So, when I started playing Akram around the last third of March Makino has mostly found himself in a position of power above the tajara. From the beginning, they have not been fond of the cat, and distinctly more active about it then they were as weeks have passed. Threats of an injunction for the ways Akram talks, insulting language, Makino even felt very annoyed about Akram's way of speaking and made sure to let everybody notice his anger even when not being involved in the conversation. Meanwhile, Akram hasn't made anything to treat Pasotel special in any shape or form, be it better or worse, the outrage was purely related to his feline and flamboyant mannerisms. When Akram became his head of department instead, Pasotel took a more reactive approach, they wouldn't involve themselves in conversations they weren't involved in but would be irritated whenever Akram addressed Makino they way he addresses anybody, usually saying "dearest", "darling" or "monsieur". At some point, Makino expressed a serious threat to arrest his HoS when being talked to like that again - the rest of the department involved themselves to tell Pasotel what a ridiculous idea it is, and that they are stretching definitions of harassment too much. That didn't stop them from trying exactly the same thing again some shift later, that time in the position of HoS above officer Akram and once again the department would defend the pink tajara thwarting the commander's efforts of getting anything done about it. I haven't seen them play Makino for some time since then even though they were a rather active player before, my first guess is that it's not a coincidence and that it is related to the rivalry with Akram. Purely hypothetically now, assume Makino came to the thread and claimed that they were harassed by Akram out of playing the game, it sounds serious, but what would you tell them once you know the big picture? Once you act so aggressively against a character that you lose respect from your whole department it is more than reasonable to say that you don't have any of ground to stand on when forming a complaint like that. This is a hypothetical complaint that Makino's player actually didn't make, but some in this thread did and I'll be using that argument against all of them to explain that I did not ruin your fun, you ruined it for yourself. You punched a cactus and started whining about a fist full of needles, it's silly at best and in the cases of AWingedHussar and Raiq, it seems to me downright manipulative and deceptive the way you present the truth to make yourselves look like the victims.
AWingedHussar, or the player of Myrin has been the department with Akram for a few rounds, by a few I mean less than five. In that time they always picked a position in power above him and most of my memories are about them spending their time in the break room doing erotic scenes rather than leading. I'm not complaining about that per se, I'm trying to get across that I can barely recall our characters interacting directly since we only spend a limited amount of shifts together that Myrin has been mostly doing her own thing throughout. I certainly cannot recall there being any hostilities during that period, despite the claims in the thread Akram is also just not the kind of guy to start aggressions, Myrin instead received the same type of introduction that practically anybody receives from Akram - a flamboyant greeting paired with compliments. It's true that Myrin has quit the security department, but should be emphasized that only when Akram is in a position of power above her. Myrin is more of a sore loser, unwilling to play with a disadvantageous hand, I've seen them play HoS throughout the time I've been active and even warden when someone else has taken the lead. One time even, I had to leave the round as commander Akram just to see Myrin log in as one mere seconds after, they made sure to announce that they are the real deal and displayed OOC awareness of my prior activity, proceeded to go to their office and whine about the "smell of dried cum and perfume" on the security radio. When AWingerHussar complains about not playing security, what they are really complaining about is that they feel entitled to the commander seat that I keep occupying. This isn't even the vast bulk of the interaction between Akram and Myrin, most of it was spend while Myrin was playing off-duty. The common radio channel often devolves into just a lynch mob against Akram and Myrin is one of the regulars, despite herself never actually having direct involvement with whatever is being yelled about, she makes sure to express her anger and latch on to any rumour. If you were to put the interactions between Akram and Myrin on a pie chart, the biggest piece would be me reading her being a megaphone for Akram hate on the common channel. Myrin also makes sure involve herself with hostile comments whenever she crosses paths with Akram, most of the time at the bar where it's not possible for the tajara to ask the bartender for a coffee and Myrin resist the urge to say something unkind, it should be noted that the reverse thing never happens, while Akram defends himself with his usual sass, there isn't a single instance where he approaches her to insult her, in fact, I've been mostly avoiding AWingedHussar since they just aren't a pleasant player. Seeing how they came to the thread to picture me as the aggressor now I can't help but point out that calling this thin-skinned is an understatement. I find it downright immature to play a big, tough, self-admitted asshole type and then cry about getting some of it back from your targets. When they play Myrin, they make sure to smear Akram regardless of whether he is even present. From what I've been able to perceive, this is a bully crying crocodile tears.
Raiq, or the player of Ana Bowchief, is one of the top players that I interact with when playing Akram, despite that, they've only presented a tiny glimpse of the situation and then even skewed it in their favour. When Raiq tells "constantly deal", what they actually mean is "deal once", because it's a situation that happened exactly once. When Akram was warden, he approached two officers at the start of the shift and said how happy he is to have two officers under his care, despite inherently kind words, this was given the sarcasm interpretation as if Akram said "to boss around" instead of "take care". HoS Ana arrived after and pretended to mediate, but what she really did is paint Akram as the black sheep and call it a day. Completely disregarding the warden's attempt to explain that his words were genuine, the coyote just went with the worst possible interpretation, talking over the man and claiming full authority over his intentions even when Akram said that he never meant to insult or be bossy. The conversation was interrupted when pizza was delivered to the department, pizza that Akram ordered and when it arrived he pointed out that this is more in line what he meant when he said "taking care of somebody", this was completely ignored, Ana B. can't help herself but give him the worst possible interpretation every time and close her eyes and ears whenever presented with something that doesn't fit her narrative, this isn't a single case it's a pattern that she follows.
After clicking through Ana's OOC notes I was left wondering whether the player came to the server to roleplay at all or self-insert their fursona. This is a tangential note and not one that is problematic in itself, but it would explain why it feels like they are playing a wishful-thinking version of themselves rather than a fictional character with edges and flaws, the line between themselves and their characters is pretty thin for a lot of people but when I play with Ana Bowchief I am genuinely left wondering if it exists at all, this all is a secondary point about the character, but one I'll be referring to throughout the paragraph a few times showing specific examples to make it clearer.
About the scenario in the medbay lobby. The "small statement" that Ana B. made was quite the monologue, it sounded quite demanding and entitled to authority, something that she perhaps noticed throughout the rant and clarified that she indeed wasn't trying to be hostile. Akram stepped in and told the officer and cyborg behind the counter something very close to "Don't worry, darlings. Our mademoiselle je-sais-tout (Madame know it all) can't help herself but feel involved.", the way Ana reacted to it he might've as well said "Why don't you fuck off you smartass bitch.", as I said before, she isn't able to give Akram anything but the very worst interpretation. Ana Bowchief's player also would not accept the possibility of leaving google translate unused and pretending like their character would not speak an ancient language that she never had points of contact with ICly apart from Akram, Ana straight out translated the alleged insult in-character, which just made me wonder once again about their roleplay standards and purely on a side note it is also incredibly ironic. I would argue that "Madame know it all" is more of a rough, playful pet name like "little rascal" than a straight-out insult, my intention is also proven by the fact that Akram called her that regularly, even when flirting with her in a more private setting, but this is a detail that Raiq conveniently leaves out. Ana was angry in the medbay, very angry indeed in what they describe as an escalation in their post, this is however untrue as apart from Bowchief there were at least five characters present out of which only she was bothered. Alexander the officer was quite silent and barely talked. So did explorer Pike who listened closely regardless and found the pet name rather amusing, they went on to name their shuttle "Madame Know It All". Athena the cyborg hound expressed how joyful they find Akram wields words and Nikolai after standing around for a bit started telling Ana Bowchief to stop complaining and get lost. The way Raiq presents the scenario you'd think Akram escalated something minor and turned the medbay lobby into a hellhole, but really apart from a loud coyote not much has happened, referring to what I suspect are low RP standards, I couldn't help but wonder afterwards if Ana's player felt like they as a person were insulted after I've seen them spend more than an hour with the IAA forming a complaint about what is basically nothing. It's also worth noting that the minute she left the scene Akram achieved in two sentences what she couldn't in her bossy rant, he told Athena to prevent access to behind reception from all who aren't authorized and asked the officer kindly to step out - done.
These scenarios aren't even the vast bulk of the interaction between Akram and Ana, the coyote spends so much time during her shift feeling involved in the security department's business that her player effectively reduced their character to what is defacto Anti-Matter-Akram. Bowchief is the top participant and instigator in radio rants against Akram, feeling the need to participate in everything she isn't involved in and speak out her suspicions as facts. Bowchief is also the current rubbernecking champion, uncontested as she feels the need to know what is going on whenever Akram is policing the station and she will never shy away from throwing in her own input, one time she even went borderline vigilante and pulled away someone Akram was trying to arrest, delaying that arrest by minutes and when stepping up too close to that suspect again after had the audacity to complain when she was pepper-sprayed away. Once after spawning into the shift she made a beeline for the brig and banged on the doors just to be annoying, another time she bribed her way in to stand in front of Akram's office and attempt to lure him into a prank. Her relation with security, especially for a regular command player, is apart from being dickish simply the lowest kind of RP and even when playing RD she won't hold back from being the loudest on the command channel, dedicating a portion of her time to be the security overwatch when it's not even remotely her job. One time she gave out a voice changer to someone else and suggested that they pretend to be Akram, which they did. When she found out that Akram has a girlfriend she first threatened him to rip his dick off if he cheats on her just to spread rumours that he cheats on her a few days later on the radio. She even seeks out people to warn them not to interact with Akram, such as Ali Corvani. Ana Bowchief is a bully that doesn't need a catalyst, that doesn't have the capacity to interpret anything Akram says as anything but sarcasm or go with the assumption that whatever Akram does professionally is an injustice and apart from that they leave me personally wondering after many shifts if they ever use an emote outside of erotic scenes. Just on that shift involving the medbay situation she involved the HoP, the Site Manager and an IAA to form a fax complaint against Akram, personally used the detective for her own investigation as she was absolutely certain that it was nobody but Akram that named the shuttle "Madame Know It All" and when the shuttle launched without permission and Akram police-taped the hangar off to ask the explorers about this gross violation of SoP Ana, of course, stood right at the edge of the tape and yelled at him and the explorers as she went with the first assumption and assumed that he is going to strip them naked for a search - they effectively dedicated their entire round to try and fuck Akram over, do you understand now why I call her Anti-Matter-Akram? So why am I to blame for ruining a player's experience when they actively work on ruining their own experience?
Allakai. Well, Allakai is a weird case, how do I put it? Because you see - they have actually spent more time complaining about Akram than interacting with that character. This leaves two options - either every one of those seconds was pure agony or they are latching onto the echo chamber and seeing how they don't mention anything about direct interaction with my character and instead present themselves as a third or second party it's likely not the first option. Sajiid may have been Akram's first HoS, though barely anything happened between the twom, Apart from banal hallway interaction, small-talk and the casual flirt, I haven't interacted much with their characters, we are talking one dozen to two dozen minutes maximum and yeah, as I said it's a good hint that Allakai doesn't mention any of those direct interactions as a complaint. They seem to be incredibly biased, something that I've read themselves suspect on discord, given how highly they value tajara lore. Instead of looking for ways to curve this incredibly bendable server lore in the character's favour, they just mention ways of doing the opposite. I can't help Allakai's bias, given that the person reached a point where they read the opposite of what I wrote about Akram - like the part with the trading vessel that Akram helped protect from pirates, and it says so in the records, yet Allakai read it and went both on discord and into this thread to state the opposite. The fact that Allakai did not approach me ICly or OOCly to help clarify in a productive attitude and instead read what they wanted and spread the rumour is a good hint of where their mind is at. Given the limited interaction between our characters, I'm not sure where their footing comes from when trying to judge Akram's abilities as a HoS. The narrative that Allakai is trying to push that I play the tajara as a soldier, as someone with an iron fist, this narrative simply doesn't exist. One of my motivators behind playing Akram was actually having experienced so much carelessness in security, things that were missed most often when I was on the receiving end, such as offering to pay fines in cash without coming to the brig, offering to come to the brig without cuffs, asking whether or not I want to press charges before prosecuting someone, and my favourite - marking a person that wishes to remain silent as uncooperative, all these things I tried to correct as Akram, I don't even make him wear any armour as a security officer in order to seem more approachable rather than intimidating, Akram is many things but he is not trigger happy, he is very forthcoming, lenient and diplomatic with the people he prosecutes as hinted at by the clear lack of stories of mistreatment of arrested suspects and prisoners with the only exception being Von Ravenheart who found himself at the receiving end of miscommunication. Allakai also went ahead and spread some rumours on discord about how Akram fired two officers and equated that to a failure to deescalate the conflict, what they didn't mention is that officer Allard and Von Ravenheart were in his office pointing guns and pepper-spraying each other as the commander tried to find a solution, but drawing your service weapon at a colleagues is more than a reasonable line to cross into being thrown out of the department, unless of course, Allakai didn't know about all that and simply pieced information together based on only hearing about the act of firing the two officers, but that's even worse - why bother talking about something you weren't directly involved in or witnessed? A lot of arguments in this thread boil down to someone feeling bad because someone treated their character badly, which for roleplaying purposes is a non sequitur. At least Allakai doesn't step into this fallacy initially and attempts a palpable roleplay, narrative-based argument and that I definitely respect if you're really curious about how the lore offers more than enough wiggle room for a character like Akram, you can message me OOCly and I'll explain it without spoiling things for the rest. Overall, Akram and Allakai's characters don't share many interactions and ICly they have been on neutral grounds, Allakai doesn't seek out and instigate trouble ICly like the previously mentioned people what they do however is currently holding the champion's belt on saying the word "Akram" on discord, as they provide fuel to the echo chamber, spread rumours and complain about anything they can find, even without their own involvement.
About Kered, as someone who isn't known for playing security I can understand that they don't have a clear picture of how ridiculous their claims are. I'm here to cause as much distress as possible to people that play in peace? I'm here to appear overbearing and obnoxious? Kered is talking about me like I'm a welderbomber yet I somehow managed to stay on the server for over half a year and even for the timeframe that I've been HoS the examples they provide are very, very limited for the claim they are trying to push. People with HoS and admin experience regardless of the server will agree with me when I say that there isn't a single role more scrutinized than the leader of security. They receive the most tickets and everybody on the station has a critical eye out for them, in just over a thousand hours in that position I haven't seen a single greytide even as much as consider to pretend that they don't know legal talk - in SS13 everybody studied law, even if they are just scrubbing the floors clean. Security is consistently the least favourite department across servers and people outside of security are eager to make the logical fallacy of saying "If something wasn't done ideally it was done wrong." in a way or the other. It's not any different here. To claim that I came to be a "constant thorn" and then somehow, given my very high playtime activity, managed to make it to the two months mark in the commander's seat - this is a claim so absurd I cannot even parody it, it is just not realistic. But why would someone make such nonsensical claims? Well, Kered makes no secret out of it that they want me gone "can Sajiid be HoS again so we don't have to deal with Akram", being just one of their comments on discord. Kered makes sure to participate in what Kered chooses to call "fuck Akram gang", it's irresponsible behaviour as an administrator. It's enabling hate, it's giving a green card for the echo chamber if you throughout the post find yourself thinking that I spent quite a bit of time refuting rumours then you have mostly Kered to thank for, as words from someone in a position of power hold much more weight. With the benefit of the doubt, I'm just going to say that Kered didn't have the capacity to understand what they're doing wrong because the other option is that they are acting abusive and malicious.
Speaking of rumours, let me take a few paragraphs to debunk some, now is as good of a point for it as any. Some of the posts like the OP are rather vague and unspecific and are achieving little more than repeating those myths so this way I can respond to a few at the same time.
First of all, the myth of me searching explorers again and again. This one's a classic, it almost makes me feel like I'm back in school again - someone did something once and it becomes their identity. The truth is that it occurred exactly that one time and nowhere near as cartoon-villainy as InfinitelyThinRectangles' childish rant about Akram storming the hangar bay would want you to believe. Akram and two other officers went it and controlled the bags and pockets of all involved, no bolted doors, nobody was even forced to hand over the bag and did so themselves. Apart from that, I have received a bwoink after from Jade, who made it clear that while my interpretation of SoP is wrong, I am free to continue doing this as this is an IC issue. Regardless, I haven't police raided any hangars ever after. There are also some people that hold the belief that I ERPd the pathfinder right after - I can't help these simple minds. The pathfinder came into the office to apologize for Harold's actions and they exchanged a few words about the police raid. I'd like to note on that with some people I just cannot win, if Akram is found outside of the office Akram is being overbearing, using too much force, but as soon as someone comes into Akram's office to talk the expectation is that he's neglecting his duties for scenes. Back on topic, I'd like to make it clear that no explorer has ever been arrested for contraband under Akram so far, this fact alone destroys the narrative set out by the rumour, I'm being extremely lenient when I play him, one time a team of explorers handed over a bunch of weapons that they "forgot they still had", despite getting literally more than my character can carry in one go no one has gotten anything but a shaking finger. Has Akram given a dozen explorers warning to stop waving their machetes in the bar? - Yes, and I don't see anything wrong with that.
Another popular myth is the one about neglecting duties for erotic roleplay. There are a few posts mentioning that in this thread and a few people talked about it on discord. What all of them have in common is being a step beyond the vague. No names of the involved, no dates, not even describing the crime that I allegedly forgot to take care of. People cannot point to something specific because they are talking and spreading nonsense. Let me get this clear: There isn't a single instance when I chose to start and/or continue a scene when I've been made aware of responsibilities. People that find themselves regularly behind tinted windows with Akram will report the opposite - Akram is very aware of his duties and goes beyond the minimum to even do such things as break a scene to equip and instruct a new cadet for an hour. I know this is an active rumour, I once even had a friend contact me on discord saying "Got a nerd complaining that you erp too much with Akram.", the funny thing is that at that point I haven't had a scene for about a week. Akram is much less naughty than people like to think, during what have been two very active months I can count my scenes on a single hand and still have a finger left and in the role of command it's even less.
Rumours are quick to brew, you can see it right here in this thread with Selyn starting one. An uninvolved party claims something and a person like ZeroNetAlpha backs it up with the worst interpretation of the observed events instead of doing the sensible thing of trying to verify the initial claim. Your aggressive speculation is not appreciated, it's counter-productive, to say the least. Thank you Selyn for taking it back, I just would like to clarify that it indeed is a claim that does not have any substance.
About Kevinz's post, first sorry that it seemed like I ignored your but you closed your ticket the second you wrote me a message which signalled to me that you don't want a response. There's a lot of effort in the post, yet it's left rather vague, going off on the nature of the server more than talking about Akram specifically. I can't comment much on that since I have no authority over it, but I will say the following: CitRP is as niche of a server as it gets, a niche game for a niche community with options for specific niche fetishism - by playing here you too consciously or less consciously agree that it's okay for people to leave because it's simply not their cup of tea. Why is it then that I can't shake off a feeling that you're tossing a bone for the common denominator? At a certain point, a person simply isn't in the target group for roleplay. There aren't any definitions and I'm not looking to set one in stone, but I would say that if you simply have no ability to separate your feelings from your character's, if you can't enjoy anything but a happy ending, if you can't watch your character lose and still get a sense of fun from it - maybe then you just aren't cut out for it. I'm not trying to say that those feelings are illegitimate, or that you should leave, more like that if you come to a hip hop concert as an enthusiast of classic please don't be mad if your complaints aren't taken seriously. This isn't a binary state either. Things aren't either lifeweb or /tg/, the server is very much allowed to have its own identity somewhere in the middle. I'm merely trying to make the point that while you somewhat sound like you fear the server to become baystation, well, in that case, you should then also fear the server to become the opposite and monitor pushes for that side just as much.
Judging a character's worth on the server by the number of people that they make stay away is like judging a movie's quality based on the number of people that leave in the middle of the screening. The much more important question I feel is whether the player is responsible and actively trying to ruin the experience for others. For a character that is set out to be a dick, this thread has a distinct lack of players that received aggressions from Akram without a catalyst. Instead what most people will experience is exactly what you have experienced, Kevinz - Akram approaches strangers with a weird, flamboyant, but inherently kind way, usually showering them with compliments. While some people take it as demeaning and feel treated like children, it doesn't change the fact that those are intrinsically good meaning words, meaning that the bitterness of the interpretation roots from the interpreter, not from Akram himself, luckily only the loud minority chooses to twist things that way. He doesn't threaten people, instead, he invites them to coffee. While Akram doesn't shy away from speaking out a very well placed, deep-cutting insult, telling me that I set out to play an annoying character feels like telling a person in a self-defence scenario that they set out to be violent. I do not play Akram, or any of my characters with the intention of ruining people's fun. Please investigate in both directions instead of just against me. If you are going to tell me to fix things, which I'm more than willing to, realize that it's a shared effort. I cannot build bridges into nowhere, both parties need to need to be willing to fix a grudge.
Before the thread is closed I'd also like to call out to Avarice to make a post. They spend time with me both ICly, becoming one of the top familiar faces for Akram, and the most time with me out of all the admins even despite an inactive period.
Hopefully, at the very least, I could demonstrate with this post that I too care about the issue and the community. If something major was left out or not addressed, please do tell. People involved or simply interested are also welcome to chat with me over discord, be it voice or text, I'm willing to keep a productive mindset about this. And if you stuck with me through the entirety of the post then..
Thank you for your attention.
Last edited by Foxfoxfox on Sun May 12, 2019 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm not actually an admin anymore thanks headmins for the prompt removal of my tag but just gonna throw this out here.
If you have two character complaints that go on for several pages requiring you to write a book to defend it all, you might honestly just not be choosing your battles properly. I don't even need to go into detail or try to defend/state any evidence other than that you have 2 characters I've seen you play with regularity, and both of them now have several page long complaint threads. You have a few others I've seen, well, one, but it's really not a great track record and I think it calls into question your ability to pick gimmicks for a character. Something I feel like you'd do well to analyze and work out. If your characters aren't a good fit for the citadel community, then they aren't a good fit. It doesn't matter if you are or are not breaking rules, per say, if you cause issue after issue it ruins the fun for other people just for your own gain. Just my two cents here.
I'm not actually an admin anymore thanks headmins for the prompt removal of my tag but just gonna throw this out here.
If you have two character complaints that go on for several pages requiring you to write a book to defend it all, you might honestly just not be choosing your battles properly. I don't even need to go into detail or try to defend/state any evidence other than that you have 2 characters I've seen you play with regularity, and both of them now have several page long complaint threads. You have a few others I've seen, well, one, but it's really not a great track record and I think it calls into question your ability to pick gimmicks for a character. Something I feel like you'd do well to analyze and work out. If your characters aren't a good fit for the citadel community, then they aren't a good fit. It doesn't matter if you are or are not breaking rules, per say, if you cause issue after issue it ruins the fun for other people just for your own gain. Just my two cents here.
This is like arguing that a person that went to court twice is more guilty, despite the outcome of being innocent. A mindset like that, Nik, is an invitation for baseless accusations since you'd encourage people to place complaints and later down the line gain the ability to argue that despite all accusations being cleared the accusation in itself holds weight - this is medieval style judgement.
Instead of judging by how much is being said, judge by what is being said.
See, the problem is that in both cases, the accusations absolutely held weight, and on multiple occasions you faced judgement from admins as well as players. So, I mean, it's not really a case of the outcome being innocent, is it? Furthermore, it was odd that so many people came to voice issue with Vellen. So many came to pile on. At the time, hey that's weird. But now this is a second character experiencing the same problem within months. If a person is found to be involved in a murder in some really strange way, but then later released, and then not 6 months later the exact thing happens again... you're absolutely right they'd be under much heavier scrutiny the second time around. Your example sorta works against you, in that way.
See, the problem is that in both cases, the accusations absolutely held weight, and on multiple occasions you faced judgement from admins as well as players. So, I mean, it's not really a case of the outcome being innocent, is it? Furthermore, it was odd that so many people came to voice issue with Vellen. So many came to pile on. At the time, hey that's weird. But now this is a second character experiencing the same problem within months. If a person is found to be involved in a murder in some really strange way, but then later released, and then not 6 months later the exact thing happens again... you're absolutely right they'd be under much heavier scrutiny the second time around. Your example sorta works against you, in that way.
Haha made you talk about Vellen on your 100th post.
I'm not sure what you mean though, the accusations against Vellen didn't lead anywhere. I didn't change the character and no sanction was spoken out.
As for your example, sure, it is a good reason to investigate deeper, but it won't actually make the person any more guilty like you're trying to argue in your initial post. I don't mind the admins doing more digging and investigating me, please do it, I think the more you dig the more it will shift the narrative in my favour.
If you're looking for patterns, it isn't just that I'm involved. You remember the Vellen complaint and you yourself deemed that a lot of the accusations being brought forth are so ridiculous that they are not even realistic, very similar to some of my arguments in this thread. The easiest way to judge a single person against several is obviously in favour of the many, but as I said before - please think critically in both directions.
Raiq, or the player of Ana Bowchief, is one of the top players that I interact with when playing Akram, despite that, they've only presented a tiny glimpse of the situation and then even skewed it in their favour. When Raiq tells "constantly deal", what they actually mean is "deal once", because it's a situation that happened exactly once. When Akram was warden, he approached two officers at the start of the shift and said how happy he is to have two officers under his care, despite inherently kind words, this was given the sarcasm interpretation as if Akram said "to boss around" instead of "take care". HoS Ana arrived after and pretended to mediate, but what she really did is paint Akram as the black sheep and call it a day. Completely disregarding the warden's attempt to explain that his words were genuine, the coyote just went with the worst possible interpretation, talking over the man and claiming full authority over his intentions even when Akram said that he never meant to insult or be bossy. The conversation was interrupted when pizza was delivered to the department, pizza that Akram ordered and when it arrived he pointed out that this is more in line what he meant when he said "taking care of somebody", this was completely ignored, Ana B. can't help herself but give him the worst possible interpretation every time and close her eyes and ears whenever presented with something that doesn't fit her narrative, this isn't a single case it's a pattern that she follows.
After clicking through Ana's OOC notes I was left wondering whether the player came to the server to roleplay at all or self-insert their fursona. This is a tangential note and not one that is problematic in itself, but it would explain why it feels like they are playing a wishful-thinking version of themselves rather than a fictional character with edges and flaws, the line between themselves and their characters is pretty thin for a lot of people but when I play with Ana Bowchief I am genuinely left wondering if it exists at all, this all is a secondary point about the character, but one I'll be referring to throughout the paragraph a few times showing specific examples to make it clearer.
About the scenario in the medbay lobby. The "small statement" that Ana B. made was quite the monologue, it sounded quite demanding and entitled to authority, something that she perhaps noticed throughout the rant and clarified that she indeed wasn't trying to be hostile. Akram stepped in and told the officer and cyborg behind the counter something very close to "Don't worry, darlings. Our mademoiselle je-sais-tout (Madame know it all) can't help herself but feel involved.", the way Ana reacted to it he might've as well said "Why don't you fuck off you smartass bitch.", as I said before, she isn't able to give Akram anything but the very worst interpretation. Ana Bowchief's player also would not accept the possibility of leaving google translate unused and pretending like their character would not speak an ancient language that she never had points of contact with ICly apart from Akram, Ana straight out translated the alleged insult in-character, which just made me wonder once again about their roleplay standards and purely on a side note it is also incredibly ironic. I would argue that "Madame know it all" is more of a rough, playful pet name like "little rascal" than a straight-out insult, my intention is also proven by the fact that Akram called her that regularly, even when flirting with her in a more private setting, but this is a detail that Raiq conveniently leaves out. Ana was angry in the medbay, very angry indeed in what they describe as an escalation in their post, this is however untrue as apart from Bowchief there were at least five characters present out of which only she was bothered. Alexander the officer was quite silent and barely talked. So did explorer Pike who listened closely regardless and found the pet name rather amusing, they went on to name their shuttle "Madame Know It All". Athena the cyborg hound expressed how joyful they find Akram wields words and Nikolai after standing around for a bit started telling Ana Bowchief to stop complaining and get lost. The way Raiq presents the scenario you'd think Akram escalated something minor and turned the medbay lobby into a hellhole, but really apart from a loud coyote not much has happened, referring to what I suspect are low RP standards, I couldn't help but wonder afterwards if Ana's player felt like they as a person were insulted after I've seen them spend more than an hour with the IAA forming a complaint about what is basically nothing. It's also worth noting that the minute she left the scene Akram achieved in two sentences what she couldn't in her bossy rant, he told Athena to prevent access to behind reception from all who aren't authorized and asked the officer kindly to step out - done.
These scenarios aren't even the vast bulk of the interaction between Akram and Ana, the coyote spends so much time during her shift feeling involved in the security department's business that her player effectively reduced their character to what is defacto Anti-Matter-Akram. Bowchief is the top participant and instigator in radio rants against Akram, feeling the need to participate in everything she isn't involved in and speak out her suspicions as facts. Bowchief is also the current rubbernecking champion, uncontested as she feels the need to know what is going on whenever Akram is policing the station and she will never shy away from throwing in her own input, one time she even went borderline vigilante and pulled away someone Akram was trying to arrest, delaying that arrest by minutes and when stepping up too close to that suspect again after had the audacity to complain when she was pepper-sprayed away. Once after spawning into the shift she made a beeline for the brig and banged on the doors just to be annoying, another time she bribed her way in to stand in front of Akram's office and attempt to lure him into a prank. Her relation with security, especially for a regular command player, is apart from being dickish simply the lowest kind of RP and even when playing RD she won't hold back from being the loudest on the command channel, dedicating a portion of her time to be the security overwatch when it's not even remotely her job. One time she gave out a voice changer to someone else and suggested that they pretend to be Akram, which they did. When she found out that Akram has a girlfriend she first threatened him to rip his dick off if he cheats on her just to spread rumours that he cheats on her a few days later on the radio. She even seeks out people to warn them not to interact with Akram, such as Ali Corvani. Ana Bowchief is a bully that doesn't need a catalyst, that doesn't have the capacity to interpret anything Akram says as anything but sarcasm or go with the assumption that whatever Akram does professionally is an injustice and apart from that they leave me personally wondering after many shifts if they ever use an emote outside of erotic scenes. Just on that shift involving the medbay situation she involved the HoP, the Site Manager and an IAA to form a fax complaint against Akram, personally used the detective for her own investigation as she was absolutely certain that it was nobody but Akram that named the shuttle "Madame Know It All" and when the shuttle launched without permission and Akram police-taped the hangar off to ask the explorers about this gross violation of SoP Ana, of course, stood right at the edge of the tape and yelled at him and the explorers as she went with the first assumption and assumed that he is going to strip them naked for a search - they effectively dedicated their entire round to try and fuck Akram over, do you understand now why I call her Anti-Matter-Akram? So why am I to blame for ruining a player's experience when they actively work on ruining their own experience?
You're deflecting from the core of the issue that the complaint is generally about. It's your performance as someone who's suppose to be a head of staff, and more particularly, the head of security. The antics that you've done as Akram are literally nothing more than fanning flames, in the incident where you were (in your own words) "happy that two officers were under your care" you're leaving out the fact that the officers were complaining about you baby talking them and being generally aggravating and discounting their complaints to you. I genuinely tried mediating with you, but you literally called the officers thin skinned and continued to make jabs at them. I fail to see how asking you to stop calling officers baby names, when I was the HoS, constitutes what you called it, especially after your continued passive-aggressive jabs.
Sitting here and acting as if though I bleed personal feelings and claiming Ana is a fursona is completely off-topic and I fail to understand how it relates to anything. Raiq is my online handle and what I consider my "character", Ana is purely SS13 and ONLY SS13. Everyone who plays this game does so to enjoy themselves, not deal with situations that are genuinely unfun to deal with or be around. The constant bickering and antagonizing that Akram does, as a head of security, does absolutely nothing to de-escalate situations, and genuinely sucks the fun out of the round when dealing with it to the point people are outright refusing to play security when they see you're on.
You sit here and play a pink Tajaran that follows absolutely none of the lore associated with a Tajaran, even going so far as to speak french with them, and then say that I shouldn't be translating what you're saying? The sarcastic comments have been asked multiple times to be stopped from Akram ICly. And to be quite frank, you continuing to claim that I feel OOC insulted by Akram's behavior is yet even more deflection from the issue. I've stated multiple times I don't have any qualms OOCly about you, but I do have a OOC issue with having to deal with the way you pick and choose how to interpret the law, and how you apply it based on who's in your befriending list. The legitimate complaint that round regarding the breach of privacy was entirely brushed off, and it's genuinely OOC upsetting that making IC complaints does absolutely nothing about this when it's been a genuine issue for a lot of people, for a while.
Even further proof of your constant piss-poor behavior as a head is, again, in your own words :
"It's also worth noting that the minute she left the scene Akram achieved in two sentences what she couldn't in her bossy rant, he told Athena to prevent access to behind reception from all who aren't authorized and asked the officer kindly to step out - done."
Except if you had simply done this in the beginning rather than insulted me and started spewing garbage in the medbay over a genuine complaint, nothing would have happened more than that? You're literally stating that you chose to do what you should have done in the first place AFTER stirring up needless bullshit.
One other small thing I'll comment on because this literally has nothing to do with the core complaint, but Ali was the one who complained about you to me, not vice versa. You wine and dined them and implied things then did the SAME thing to Ana the next shift, and someone else the next after. Even the same exact questions. Multiple people were doing the IC rumor mill about how you were literally running around Akram wining and dining people then are suddenly in a monogamous relationship. Briana literally approached me and asked for help regarding their lewd encounter, and the general dismissive attitude about Briana's feelings (and even Briana's own input regarding feeling dismissed) was what lead to the threat of Akrams "baguette" being ripped off.
Ultimately, why do you continue to choose to OOCly play these disgusting, annoying stereotyped characters that are grating to almost the entire station? I literally just now learned you were Mary Louise Vellen, and I can now say that I genuinely feel you're going out of your way to piss off as many people as you can with how your characters gimmicks play out. You OOCly choose to behave this way with your characters.
I want you to address the core of this complaint, as this isn't an attack against Akram as a character, it's a complaint about their behavior as a head of staff. Two entirely different things.
Funny how the complaint against Mary was similar, and how they behaved in Engineering. Mary even had people who refused to play engineering when they were on shift. Do you see the theme here?
Hi, people pressed me to comment, so, here you go. My post is mostly outlined as follows: (A) Correction of an issue Ana had ICly with Akram. (B) My stance. (C) An odd claim I saw (I believe in innocence before being proven guilty). (D) My stance two: Electric Boogaloo. (E) Quote. (F) Conclusion.
Briana literally approached me and asked for help regarding their lewd encounter, and the general dismissive attitude about Briana's feelings (and even Briana's own input regarding feeling dismissed) was what lead to the threat of Akrams "baguette" being ripped off.
A) This scene was a misunderstanding from the start. The short of it is that Akram - when taking his past interactions with Ana to account - didn't trust the Coyote in the slightest to do what Briana needed. His dismissive attitude wasn't towards Briana's feelings or the pain she'd been in, it was towards the thought of getting help from Ana, really. Later on that shift, once the two were alone, Akram explained his words: apologizing profusely to Briana for appearing so dismissive, and, suggesting they get a second opinion as well as a different Doctor.
B) But onto what really matters. I know you may find this hard to believe, but, Admins do disagree with one another, and, I have a disagreeance with Kered. I don't feel Akram has intentionally worked against Security, or, sought to ruin the round for anyone. If I had to take a stance, it'd be somewhere around where Kevinz is, in his post. I'd really like to stick to where this complaint originated from, his performance as the Head of Security. I do disagree with the deputisation of the QuarterMaster. Do I see it as something worth punishing them over? No. It's only happened once, and, at the end of the day? Not even that big of a deal.
C) I'm not just going to ignore what Varka said about Brock, the Warden, searching the Explorers, either.
Now, however, in a moment of consideration, my hand has been forced. Why? He's apparently foisting off the Explorer searches to his subordinates and coworkers. In a round a few hours ago, the Pathfinder told the Exploration team that - get this - the Warden had asked the Pathfinder to search the rest of the team. Who was Security Commander for that shift? Akram.
I'm fairly certain this was something Brock did on his own. I haven't seen any logs that would have Akram being directly involved with this search at all. The claim of Akram ordering the second search seems to have been, "artificially validated," by ZNA the post right after Varka's here.
Hadn't realized that Akram was the one that ordered that search, but I was playing as Mikeel that round and blatantly told the warden to buzz off, Actually my words were more along the lines of - Actually, fuck it, here's some logs.
Yet, nothing. No proof that Akram was the one that ordered the search. Just that he coincidentally was the HoS, and, like hell I'm gonna try and find the shift where this actually happened. Unless someone can pull a round ID out of their ass, I'm not about to spend a day or more worth of time trying to find on Sec comms where Akram may have, or may not have, ordered a search. It's just not worth it, not even for the sake of arguing is it worth wasting that much time.
D) Clearly people aren't happy with the pink, French-speaking Tajaran. Clearly. I don't feel he makes a bad Head of Security, he made a few mistakes in the position, sure, but, who hasn't? I suppose the reason I think so fondly of him, is that I have no issue with his use of monnikers. He's never gone out of his way to be a dick to any of my characters (trust me, he's met a lot of them that he doesn't know are me). Despite the language being dead in the setting, I just can't get worked up over someone speaking French at all. It doesn't bother me, nor does it break my immersion.
E) However, to be fair - and I can't believe I'm quoting Stellar here - maybe Stellar has a point?
The one thing he needs to do is change his attitude in general and stop french talking. A head shouldn't belittle folks, or baby talk them.
Perhaps people wouldn't be complaining if Akram's words weren't so antagonistic at times when they're lower than him. Evidently most of the other people who've posted here have an issue with Akram's words. I haven't. Kevinz's beautiful post sums up my opinion here.
At a certain point if I feel like you're overdoing it, I'm not going to stop and go "but this is your IC character."
You, as a person OOCly, decided to play this character.
While we're not a LRP meme server on RP, we're also not here with the intention of having a baystation-esque super-serious workplace RP server.
People work all day and come to play a game. It's fun to have some people who are playing less-than-nice or frankly annoying pranksters/characters. It's not fun to have it get to a degree where it starts impacting a lot of people's rounds.
And this, too.
But more importantly, I also do not think the character gimmick is a non issue. It's VERY rare for someone to cause a huge amount of drama and upset, and for it to not be their fault at all, not a single bit. It's happened before, and I've seen it happen before, but it's not the usual case. This isn't one of those cases.
I reiterated a lot of what Kevinz posted because he nailed it.
F) I spent over an hour on this post, but, remember I'm just a person; as fallible as the rest of you. I gave my perspective. If you want to know what I think would help, it'd be something along the lines of: try to talk to people who aren't happy with your character's gimmick, understand why what you're doing is upsetting them, have a bit of leniency when it comes to other's requests. Humility goes a long way. I'm not saying you can't play a pink, French-speaking Tajaran. That would be ludicrous to suggest when you compare him to some of the station's other characters. Maybe the gimmick has gone on for too long. I'm also trying to say that we're all persons. As persons we can think rationally, and, talk to one another to come to conclusions; be willing to compromise, on both sides. That's the only way persons can work together as a people.
Focusing on making Akram an enjoyable, yet flawed, character would be best for most everyone, I believe. Unless Mayfox starts breaking rules, or, starts being an actual dick to people; there's no direct action I'm willing to do here, lest I punish someone who is undeserving. (And yes, I did see the post about the validhunting, as well as all the buzz in A-chat. Trust us, we Admins are talking.)
C) I'm not just going to ignore what Varka said about Brock, the Warden, searching the Explorers, either.
Now, however, in a moment of consideration, my hand has been forced. Why? He's apparently foisting off the Explorer searches to his subordinates and coworkers. In a round a few hours ago, the Pathfinder told the Exploration team that - get this - the Warden had asked the Pathfinder to search the rest of the team. Who was Security Commander for that shift? Akram.
I'm fairly certain this was something Brock did on his own. I haven't seen any logs that would have Akram being directly involved with this search at all. The claim of Akram ordering the second search seems to have been, "artificially validated," by ZNA the post right after Varka's here.
Hadn't realized that Akram was the one that ordered that search, but I was playing as Mikeel that round and blatantly told the warden to buzz off, Actually my words were more along the lines of - Actually, fuck it, here's some logs.
Yet, nothing. No proof that Akram was the one that ordered the search. Just that he coincidentally was the HoS, and, like hell I'm gonna try and find the shift where this actually happened. Unless someone can pull a round ID out of their ass, I'm not about to spend a day or more worth of time trying to find on Sec comms where Akram may have, or may not have, ordered a search. It's just not worth it, not even for the sake of arguing is it worth wasting that much time.
It's not worth it, and it would be an actual waste of time: I've retracted the accusation, and Brock's player has already come forward to say he did it of his own initiative. Unless someone else wants to champion that particular cause, I think we can put it aside for now.
