Player Report
Your Byond ID? Katskan
Date of Incident January 3, 2023
Your Character Name? Phelan
Accused Byond Key(if known): Unknown
Accused Character Name Sebastian "Exodus" Hale
Approximate time and date of the incident (Central US Time for fastest results) ~0400 round start, multiple incidents in round
What rule(s) were broken: Rule 4, 6, 11
Description of the incident: During this round I was playing as a marine synthetic, Hale was playing as XO. They joined a few minutes after round start while we were sorting aCO and the requisitions officer was starting to get things sorted, and I had just finished prepping kit for the round.
In order of what I believe is least to most egregious.
Rule 6: Metagaming
Marines ended up mutinying over this one. The marine force was actively pushing the xenos back, and we had at least 3 layers of FOB fully built. Hale inexplicably declares that we are actually losing and orders evac, will not explain anything just says to obey his orders, presumably to ensure there's plenty of marines alive during hijack. Marines were so confused and angry about it they mutinied with approval and took the ship.
Rule 4: Griefing
My first interaction with Hale in the round was him coming into CIC when I was about to ask the aCO, the RO, what LZ to set. I informed them of the comm tower locations after which he says with slow deliberation about "bestowing the highest honor he can upon a synthetic" and tells me to act as an SO i.e. overwatch. Now this is a valid order, however I will state that 1: the preface about "highest honor that can be bestowed on a synthetic" makes it obvious that he knows EXACTLY what he's doing is trying to make me miserable. Furthermore while unfortunately this is anecdotal I have had past interactions wherein Hale has gone out of his way to attempt to grief me as a synthetic by doing things such as ordering me not to leave an APC, or to literally sit and stare at the medical status computer in lower medbay lobby. He has made it clear OOC that he dislikes synthetics and the players behind them, and the way this played out through the round shows it. Continuing on, in response to being told to overwatch, I dislike having my time wasted so I told him I was going to go to cryo, started taking off my gadgets and surgical web to put in the synthetic closet for a potential replacement for me to use, at which point he starts backpedaling and saying "wait wait I was only joking" again showing he knows EXACTLY that what he was telling me to do was griefing. In response to that I exited the cryo pod as I hadn't ghosted yet and continued with normal round duties. I asked several times in command comms but got no reply about what OB shell to load, and then joined the marine drop. I mention that because after I had dropped I helped out around FOB, at one point or other I asked for a guard to come to telecomms which caught Hale's attention and he accused me of disobeying a direct order to do overwatch, which mind you by now he has 2 SOs in CIC with him. He also makes an announcement that basically says I'm rogue and he's going to talk to HC about it because I won't come topside to overwatch. In response to his reversal of his "oh I'm just joking I didn't mean you had to overwatch" I said again that I was on my way to cryo, and that it would be a waste, to which he relented and stopped pressing the point.
This touches on the final rule break 11: Malicious Compliance. As described, Hale knows some of the rules synthetic players operate under, and he uses them to make synthetic players miserable. While he is technically correct that the XO can order a synthetic to do overwatch, and they are obligated to comply or cryo, he also knows that synthetics are wasted on that assignment and that nobody plays synthetic to be a SO, it's basically the closest he can get to "go stand in the corner and watch a wall" as you can get while being a valid order. He knows this because he's tried to order me to watch a wall in the past, and I ignored it because that is in fact not a valid order. That's why he says "I am bestowing the highest honor I can upon you" before saying "go watch paint dry on overwatch", knowing synthetics can't fire OBs, can't give orders, and can't use their actual skillset of engineering and medicine.
Synthetics are able to do overwatch and can be ordered to do so not for XOs to torment especially when they have 2 staff officers available, but so that when there are no CIC players a synthetic can fill in for their absence in an emergency while the aCO does their day job e.g. CMP having to handle an issue in brig or RO needing to go manage supplies for a bit, or no department heads available at all.
To finish off, a large part of the reason why I make this report is because I know that many of the less experienced or newer synthetic players would be terrified in this kind of situation. The XO is not there to make people afraid of losing their WL by going out of their way to double back on their word about joking giving someone a shit assignment and later accusing them of disobedience. The XO is there to fill the command role and to help the marine side play somewhat coherently, thus enhancing their experience. If someone is going to grief a specific subset of player just because of a role they play by abusing the command authority of XO to make them feel bad, uncomfortable or afraid, they're going out of their way to make someone's time not just a waste but a negative experience. XO is not a synthetic antagonist, they're a command officer.
Evidence (screenshots, logs, etc): Will need administrator assistance for logs.
Do you understand that staff make the final decision in the resolution of this report? Yes