Share the Love Awards Event Summary
Posted on 03 Apr 2023 @ 5:57pm by Commander Calliope Zahn
SHARE THE LOVE
Starting Mid February and going into the end of March, we held a “Share the Love” Event, with a feature write up about every player among us, posted in our discord general channel!
The XO shared personal reflections and impressions (and was showered with the same from everyone!) and those will remain in full in the sim discord, but at the end of each player feature was included a one time issue, unique award, some funny, some sweet, and some dear, tailored to each individual or his/ her character(s). (the XO may or may not have been influenced by the show, “The Office” and Michael Scott’s Dundee Awards….)
Here is a catalog of excerpts of the praise and the awards which will also be entered in the Nova system.
David
Joined Nov 9th 2022
Writes as Maurice Rubens, Moon-Young Chun & others
“He appreciates that the place has context and history and nuance built in, and makes himself at home in it. He’s an excellent contributor and very inventive too. It’s really rewarding to see the things we’ve previously seeded into the shared universe being tended and brought to life.
And I love his commitment to the diplomatic flavor! He’s doing more than just wearing a purple collar, but instead dying his whole character in the wool of diplomacy and the backstory and contacts that come along with that, right down to the psychology of a character who is a master of both etiquette and double talk.”
Lucky Thirteen Ribbon
Because David’s got 13 posts already, which might not sound like a lot, but he’s only been here 13 weeks! So that’s a really solid contribution, especially when every post has been a treat to read.
—
Em
Joined November 3rd 2022
Writes as Limmi Ovim
“Quite possibly I met Em before anyone else I presently still write with [...] I never forgot the joy of IMing tags back and forth with Em and waiting for the chime to tell me the next brilliant description and dialog he’d contributed for me to respond to. [...] The heat and pressure that life inevitably supplies brings on the diamonds naturally expressed in everything we do- our writing, our creative hobbies, our professions, and our relationships. It’s nice to have a little something precious to show for all the pain and struggle.”
The Perfectionist Stripe
No sense in letting it hold you back! Wear it proudly. Just remember that, verse or prose, professional or hobbyist, no work of art is ever truly finished, just abandoned. Just like all of us who pursue the craft of writing, it’s actually the writer himself being endlessly perfected. So keep polishing- the next scene!
—
Chistery
Joined October 15th 2022
Writes as Braedyn Tann & Esazi Zh’Athrun
“Unique with his characters, determined and an overcomer, he adds creativity and playfulness to the scenes he’s in. Negotiating details with Chistery when he joined, I immediately understood that he has a love of the characters he illustrates and invests himself in them with sprinkles of influence from other passions and his own life, which is one of the best approaches to baking new characters, because the writer has to first care about them before he can draw everyone else in. [...] Proving himself flexible and open to melding with the world of OC, he customized two unique and complementary characters to suit. [...] Anyone looking on would do well not to discount this undersung gem of a writer. I think he’s a rising star.”
Blue Ribbon Resting B*tch Face
There’s more than a little competition for this honor among several characters, so I know I’m going to disappoint a lot of people by choosing just one, but Braedyn Tann takes it. Just look at his profile image! Plus the confirmation in his personality description makes it obvious. Is he mad? Bearing a grudge? Bitter inside? Is he judging you? That’s for you to find out.
—
Aaron
Joined Sept 18th 2022
Writes as Sikan
“While Sikan is true to the Vulcan nature, Aaron leverages description and 3rd person internal narrative and doesn’t shy away from Sikan having something to say. Sikan looks every bit like a typical cold blooded elf eared classic to most, while being somewhat of a black sheep among his kind. Also everyone on the leadership team had to notice the cat in the bio first. It just really stood out as the right touch for this character to be a cat owner.
Something that Aaron does really well in all his writing, I think, is striking the perfect balance between research and invention. He anchors the setting and the reality and the context but launches off from there. I have also always enjoyed his attention to voice in his narrative and rhythm and pacing in his dialog, and anticipate more of this in future posts with us!”
Cat Dad Award
Because Aaron has cats irl, and ic Sikan also has a black cat named Pumpkin who judges him (a very fitting pet for a Vulcan). There’s something about cats and being a cat person— it’s a perfect example of being both high on neuroticism/ anxiety but building your competence and confidence anyway! It might seem impossible, but it’s how cats get by, and some of us people too.
—
Spiral
Joined Sept 7th, 2022
Writes as Brek
“Spiral understands Ferengi and clearly loves them in spite of, or maybe because of, all their greed and idiosyncrasies. Even though Brek keeps trying to let his heart be as cold as the freezing temperature of liquid latinum, he just can’t seem to turn away the hard luck cases. Maybe it’s because he has all those memories of when someone did the same for him. Maybe it’s because he’s still hoping for some kind of quid pro quo. Maybe it’s some bad juju, or some poorly aged cheese he ate. Whatever. He’s going to make his fortune anyway. One day.
Spiral’s writing voice is fun and she meanders through the story with interesting stops along the way. Her dialogue is often playful or poignant.”
Latinum Heart
From Rule of Acquisition #75 “Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of Latinum.”
Awarded because Spiral has a heart of Latinum, but also for Brek who has struck out among the stars to seek his fortune, and whether he likes it or not, he still has some heart. But we do hope Brek is careful with that heart of his, because as rule #285 states, No good deed ever goes unpunished…
—
Sara
Joined Feb 27 2022
Writes as Hannah Wagner and others
“Sara has been a delight in a lot of ways, but particularly from my aGM perspective, I get a lot of joy out of her contributions to the plot. When we kick her a tag for contribution with just some directors cues for the story she delivers on the details! I know I’ve said it before, but her posts of the autopsy for the Korinn were excellent and are going to go on as long term canon in OC’s wiki as the current story builds and the reference sheets for Korrin are developed. She considered more than just organs, height, and the basics, extending into what the observations might mean for the culture and lifestyles of a whole race of people. Just as Dr. Wagner felt an empathetic connection with them by learning about them, she brought us to have the same connection. I and others already have other work in draft format that builds off of what she established there. And as the mission continues I have faith that Wagner will deliver even more clever insight. This is a huge part of why we co-write in groups: to pool our shared creative resources and world build together!”
*this award is reissued, as the previous one is not presently as applicable <3
Eye for Detail Decoration
Whatever Sara is describing in a post— whether it’s setting up Wagner’s quarters, or putting things away in sickbay, or describing a new alien species, taking a walk in the snow, or choosing a coverlet for a casket— she gives special attention to the description and design of the surroundings and items of interest, giving the eye of the imagination plenty of sparkle to attend to!
—
Polar
Joined February 11th 2022
Writes as Ridge Steiner, Tane HaiRoa, Atif Ibn Sharjar, & others!
“Polar picked out OC about one year ago, at a time after there was some turnover in our numbers and some lull in the writing mojo with those who remained. He was a shot in the arm for the sim, with a go-getter attitude and a very active interest in picking up the ball and running on multiple fronts. I found it instantly easy to build a rapport together in our DMs and he seemed to glom onto the particular style and vision of the sim as a game for developing writing chops and getting your hands dirty in off-shoot threads with multiple characters and multiple adjacent settings. It was such a pick-me-up that a few months in when I was raving about him to Sep with all he was doing developing the world of Loki III and supporting other players, Sep suggested we bring him onto sim leadership! So we did. Polar took a second character (HaiRoa) as CMC, and has been an excellent advisor and contributor on the GM team, supporting the story building, recruiting, developing game materials, undergirding the plot development and actively drawing others into posts with additional characters of his own. I can’t express how much of a gift he’s become in my simming life, and also to me personally as we support each other just chatting and sharing. I’m proud to be a friend of his.”
The Polar Star
Polar himself has a no-holds barred personal all-in commitment to everything he puts his shoulder to. He’s always looking for ways to involve and include others, and cares very much about the sim wellness overall and he’s never swayed from principled personal character and what he holds true, making him a great anchor person for collaborating and soundboarding with and a very trustworthy friend.
As a writer, his worldbuilding works as a guiding light through the setting and peoples that surround the station, giving us all something to look up at and strive alongside him to achieve.
—
Tara
Joined November 14th 2020
Writes as Rhihannon Hokir, Louke Haille, Noah Koroushi, & others
“To me, Tara has always been a sort of quiet steady support writer. She’s on hand to be called on for a tag or a story item needed and does great with what I’ve come to think of as Directors tags or GM wish list items. Basically you throw a bone and she’ll hunt that bugger down.
I think a little bit less appreciated is that Tara has her own head canon full of characters, especially of the El Aurian kind. They have a legacy going back to hiding out in pre-warp Earth history, and various family and friendship webs that she’s always traced and maintained throughout all of her sims! While I know Tara keeps herself busy with her family life, work, hobbies, church and social organizations and basically being a great neighbor in real life, I’m pleased that she has a slice to share with us too, and I’m always tuned to hear more about her characters and their complex backstories.”
Deep Roots Ribbon
Tara is all about roots. Her own roots, the roots of others around the world, and the fictional roots of her characters in trekdom. Roots might be hidden beneath the surface and easily overlooked, but they’re keeping the soil and sustaining the life of our stories. Like hidden roots, she might seem quiet and unassuming sometimes, but no one is fooled. She’s a reliable staple of the sim and a great support to everyone she writes with!
—
Markus/ Sep
Founded the Sim July/August 2020
Writes as Zavareh Sepandiyar, Corvus DeHavilland, Thaddeus Zayne, Declan Finn, & Multitude.
“His commitment to detail and the “realism” of a military styled sim is very convincing, even for make believe. [...] I found that the high bar drove me to my own best. It didn’t make me change my style or my voice, but just bring them up to try to match his product. No slouching around. Not because he was judging me at all, but because he believed and cared about what I was contributing and directly pushed on it in the posts too. And I was very proud from the start of the work Sep brought out in me. That’s the magic of writing with peers who otherwise seem intimidating from the outside. They get the best from you.”
Multiple Character Disorder Citation
Sep has a problem. But we’re here for it.
I’ve seen him brag that people have mistaken his solos for JPs between multiple players. And it's not hard to see how that could happen! This is testament to the level of convincing character variety he constantly achieves. His stable of characters are mostly human, but no two are the same. Every single one is highly individual in his or her own right. Sep makes being a human one of the most interesting things about going to space.
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Nikki/Calliope Zahn
Joined 20 Aug 2020
Writes as: Calliope Zahn, Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri, Ensign Marcello Wiser, Senior Chief Petty Officer Lex Navine, and so, so many others.
Simulation Bedrock Award
Nikki comments: This is my favorite sim award I have ever received. Some people I love a lot wrote a lot of nice things which I was not expecting…. *blush* It goes on a long time. Although I treasure every word, I will put some excerpts so as to keep the page from scrolling on so long as to be embarrassing with all of the praise. Thank you, everyone. I am here because of you.
Sep: “From the way she interacts with the crew in the chats (creating these awards for example) to the way she’s eager to write with everyone, has great suggestions for that writing and is the first one to set up a nice planning session to get everyone involved and moving towards the same writing goal. Things just wouldn’t be the same if she wasn’t in the XO’s chair. [...] Every post Nikki touches is a master-class in well written dramatic exposition, character reflection and story telling.”
David: “At every turn, Nikki is the definitive simm XO. OOC, She supports the admin of Obsidian Fleet with aplomb, keeping the crew engaged with inventive ideas that both create camaraderie amongst the members IRL crew and stoke our creativity energy. IC, her characters are ever ready to support the crew’s storylines, leading to richer posts that are a joy to read.”
Spiral: “I've simmed for many years, and it's the first time I see an XO who is so generous and so completely dedicated to her crew. [...] In addition to this, Nikki writes beautiful posts with characters who have a rich personal life.”
Tara: “Seriously, beyond the sheer creativity and engaging personality Nikki brings to her writing, I love the way she creates characters that are unflinchingly ‘human’ - for lack of a better word when it comes to interstellar species. [...] Outside of her characters, Nikki is always supportive. Even when her own life is throwing her curveballs, she manages to sneak in kindness and encouragement by the teaspoonful until it feels like one has had her undivided attention the whole time.”
Polar: “Nikki is a dynamo, a rock-solid powerlifter in real life and aboard Obsidian Command. [...] from my first interaction with Nikki I realized she was something special. A writer who brings out the best in others simply by involving them in things. [...] Nikki produces well developed, believable, imaginative and intriguing characters seemingly at the drop of hat. [...] she can have an array of stories and threads all in progress and trip neatly between each one with no drop in quality or enthusiasm. An enthusiasm which is completely and totally infectious, writing with Nikki is addicting, the more you do it, the better it gets and the more you want to write.”
Aaron: “Nikki has always been probably the best cheerleader anybody could ask for. She’s always present and ready to offer assistance, and as much as she says I’ve helped her in her writing, she’s helped me in mine. She’s ready to offer thoughts and ideas and there are few people in the world that are better to brainstorm ideas with.”
Category: General News