Sal Taybrim

Congratulations and welcome to the fleet!

Oh, Captain Bomba, I just don't know how those pills got in there...

Oh my gosh, so many awesome awardees! I'll start with the Conny... @Prudence "Rue" Blackwell - I have known Rue since we played together on a Changeling chat and one snowy day she was talking about how she missed online roleplaying and I prodded her to come play SB118. I knew then she was a great player! Rue is a really modest person - every time she gets a promotion she asks me "do you think I really deserved it?" - the answer is emphatically YES!! Rue is a great writer with a ton of experience in roleplaying games with creating great character development and it really shows in everything she writes for Rue. Rue's writer is a newbie to Star Trek games; which really makes how well she writes as an Ops officer all the more impressive. But what sticks in my mind about Rue is how much she develops Rue as a person. We've met Rue's family, know all about her quirky parents, her affection for her brother and how her sister in law has added an element of tension into her family structure. We've heard all about Rue's upbringing through flashbacks and stories and she's a character with tons of hobbies, interesting and interesting things to talk about every shore leave! I am so happy to see Rue honored with this award - it is so deeply deserved! @Saveron - Being a counselor is tough. Being a great counselor is probably the toughest job on the ship. And you know when you have a great counselor on board when that player pushes other characters to face some uncomfortable things. Saveron does this with the most realistic portrayal of Vulcan compassion I have ever seen. And in return he pushes every player on the Constitution to improve and develop their character. Saveron is the sort of counselor that makes others think about what's happened in their characters pasts and discuss it openly - and that immediately opens up the players to think about their characters in a more interesting and intricate way. This makes Saveron not only a great character, but a wonderful player. Reading Saveron's posts is a joy because they are always so detailed, cohesive and gently challenging. I absolutely look forward to seeing how Saveron's interactions with the crew prompts the Conny to come together more and I'm certainly going to enjoy every interaction that my character has with Saveron! Next, a quick shout out to all the wonderful winners from the Embassy! While I don't know most of your characters well, I've had the joy of working with @Oddas Aria in the academy program and no one can miss @Hannibal Parker's enthusiastic presence on the fleetwide chats. What I do know is that for years I've heard roleplayers pooh-pooh planet bases and starbases as "boring settings for sims" and following in DS9's footsteps the Embassy is proving all the naysayers wrong! Every time I look at the Embassy, they are having fun and their players love playing there. That really shows in seeing fantastic up and coming players like Oddas Aria and @Savan who started as ensigns on the Embassy and are now respected Lt Commanders! I love the joy and energy you guys bring to the fleet and (being a massive fan of bases rather than ships myself) I'm so excited to see the Embassy so well represented by such wonderful players! Congratulations you guys!! And now... I'm going to gush about my own crew just a little bit. I'm allowed, right? ;-) @Mirra Ezo - did you have enough tears of joy or can I embarrass you a little more? You are one of the stars of the show this year and you've earned every accolade! I think almost every player in this game has gotten a chance to get to know you over the last year and they all agree: you are fantastic! From your humor and positive presence on the forums and the chats to your wonderful posts, I want to thank you for everything you do. Thank you for posting quotes and sims that recognize your fellow writer's work. Thank you for welcoming so many people to the Discord chats. Thank you for being a friend to my character; and to every character on Ops. Personal interactions are one of the most interesting and wonderful aspects of roleplaying and I think when people interact with Mirra they are so excited to read every post and fill in every tag because there's such a sense of personal connection with your character. Thank you so much for being such a wonderful player; and so many heartfelt congratulations on this award, it is so well deserved! @Taelon - Your portrayal of a science officer is fantastic! I love watching the dichotomy of a scientific genius layered onto of an awkward maturing personality; and I love the amount of detail you put into Taelon's relationships and family. Furthermore, you have done a fantastic job in creating new plots for Ops and well fleshed out NPCs. I love how Taelon can take concepts that could quickly become overpowered or ridiculous and turn them into gritty, realistic and well thought out plot points that are peppered with a lot of love and humor. I remember hints of Taelon's mad scientist self coming out in the planning for Tatash's biomechanical arm; which after some wishful thinking and a lot of arm puns ended up being a very realistic treatment of trauma and overcoming the loss of a limb. And I love seeing the contrast between all the crazy stuff Taelon might plan or want to do, but watching his writer pull Taelon back into reality. It's a wonderful combination and Taelon is an absolute joy to have on Ops, both as a staff person and as a player. Thank you so much for all your wonderful and creative ideas and I can not wait so see how you're new mission plans play out! @Aitas - You've done such a good job in blending intel with the crew as a whole and adding a realistic focus on how an intel officer can help in so many aspects of a mission! It's so wonderful to be able to trust your chief of intel to develop a department which can easily be powergamed into something realistic and wonderful; and Aitas has proven herself time and time again that she can develop intel into something that works with the crew and benefits the story as a whole. Thank you so much for creating a great intel department as well as being a deep and connected character. We've seen so many facets of Aitas, from her family to her growing relationships on the ship including a developing romance! I love how realistically you approach issues of family, motherhood and family relations in ways that are compelling to read and enrich the storyline as a whole! Also thank you for all of your wonderful plot ideas - Aitas is a fantastic member of the Ops staff and she tirelessly supports the ship through wiki updates and helping plan plot points! Thank you so much for being a fabulous player and congratulations on this honor! And last; but certainly not least... CONGRATULATIONS @Theo Whittaker!! Oh my gosh, Mikey. You deserve this honor so much. Theo had been a fantastic first office not just all through this year but all though last year as well! His longevity and stability as first officer of Ops is only rivaled by his fantastic ability to lead away teams, plan missions, support his crew and write fantastic posts. Theo has it all. Incredibly responsible staff member that helps keep the game running? Check. Friend to every member of the crew? Check. Forms deep and lasting relationships with fellow PCs? Check. I'm sure every single member of Ops can give a story of a wonderful scene they had with Theo. My favorite is the time Sal beamed Theo in his pyjamas onto the newly delivered Columbia. Theo's reaction was priceless. But then again I'm sure Tatash, Flynn and Mirra could tell the tale about the Romulan ale... Theo creates amazing villains and gives them epic long term plot arcs that conclude in a mission that engaged every member of the crew in exciting ways. He helps plan every plot on Ops and always has creative ideas to share. He reaches out to every crew member with support and mentorship and helps in the administration tasks of Ops on a regular basis. He pushes plots forward, makes sure that all players are enjoying themselves and supports the story with NPCs whenever needed. He did an absolutely fantastic job in running his own mission on his practical and deeply cares about every player on Ops both IC and OOC. He is a consummate storyteller and he absolutely makes Ops a better place to play. Thank you so much for all your hard work and support, Theo - I am so happy you won the Strange award this year. It is so deeply deserved! CONGRATULATIONS to all my wonderful Ops crew! And congrats to all the winners! Great job everyone!!

I'd like to give just a few special shout outs. First - to all my Ops crew, you guys are absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for making each mission special and every character such a joy to interact with! You are the best crew a CO could ask for! Of all the Ops crew who were given general awards, I know I have gotten to sing praises of the senior officers so many times over so I want to put a focus on @Ishani Kasun and @Arturo Maxwell - two of our fantastic junior officers. Ishani has been such a wonderful character to see progress and she's made such a tremendously creative niche for herself as a crisis control officer as well as Asst. chief of security. A wonderful combination of counselor and security, she brings such a unique and realistic perspective to her role on the ship. The way she deals with trauma - both when it happens to her character and when she helps other characters work through it is incredibly detailed and believable. I know in the upcoming year Ishani will grow from a fascination junior officer into a strong senior officer and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us! Maxwell is one of our newest officers and he's already become a beloved fixture on Ops for his humor, his enthusiasm and his creative plot twists! In a very short time he's quickly gone from a newbie to a three dimensional character and we've had the joy of meeting his family and friends, as well as seeing his writer develop wonderfully interesting pNPCs that help give Ops more humor and life. Again, I know Maxwell is a player who is headed upwards in the next year and I'm so excited to watch him grow! I want to give a special shout out to @Trel'lis as well! Trel'lis has been one of the most loyal and long term officers on Ops and we've had the joy of watching her continuously improve year after year. I know her writer gets frustrated at times and doesn't always get in the spotlight; so I want to take a moment and let everyone know that Trel'lis did a phenomenal job this past year dealing with the IC loss of her beloved, forming bonds of friendship between the crew and starting up a side plot to finally confront an old nemesis. Congratulations on a great job, and I look forward to watching more plots unfold next year! Also much love to my Constitution crewmates! Jerry Milsap is a wonderful player and character to sim with in sickbay and I'm so proud of how he's grown and improved in his writing year after year. He's done a great job with creating new MSNPCs (and with keeping my character in line!). @aphelion - aka Choi Ji-hu is a fantastic writer who makes playing on the Constitution more fun <3 I know Choi's a writer who has great things in store and I absolutely love reading his sims. And thank you to @Jalana for being a great captain and making the Conny a great place to play! Congrats to everyone!!

^^ Well... yes. ;-)

Many congratulations to all the winners! I'd like to give special shout outs to @Jalana - I really hoped she would get recognized for all the amazing work she does with the image collective - and has done for years! Not only is she fabulous and committed to providing amazing images for our wiki and forums; but she's been doing it for as long as I can remember. It's something we take for granted sometimes, and really needs to be pointed out and congratulated because it's one of the things new members immediately see and are drawn to; and it's also something that provides joy and a aids for storytelling to our longtime members. A picture tells 10,000 words and by that logic, Jalana has written an entire library of novels for our game by providing us high quality images to help bring our stories to life. Congrats, Jalana! Also a special shout out to @Mirra Ezo who is Ops' own little ray of sunshine! If you've been on the chat, no matter what ship you're on you probably know Mirra. She's always ready to welcome a new member or talk with anyone. She's attended online conventions bringing smiles and humor across the roleplaying community and presenting a great face for SB118; and she's a fixture on the forums. I can't think of a nicer, more welcoming member to receive this honor than Mirra! Many congrats to @Oddas Aria, who I have had the pleasure of working with in the academy! You've done a great job this year and everyone is looking forward to seeing you grow and where you go from here! And a big round of applause to @Renos for being the second person in the group's history to win the great bird award! That's amazing! I very much look forward seeing great things from all of our special award winners in the upcoming year! Excellent work everyone!

Congratulations to all the staff winners! I would like to give a special shout out to Tony (Solzano) who assisted StarBase 118 Ops both in its initial startup and in the transition from Captain Handley-Page to myself. I have never met a more patient, thorough and caring mentor than Tony. He always provided good advice, was a wonderful person to talk ideas through and made sure that our ship - along with so many more ships across the fleet - had a strong and stable foundation to create a great game. I miss him, and hope that he can return to playing full time again soon! Congratulations to Rear Admiral Renos, who leads by example in every aspect of the game. I still remember his tireless work on the publicity team, and that's how I first saw this game advertised. I believe he brought many of the fantastic players who currently play into the game and he had worked on innumerable projects and taskforces since then. It is wonderful to see him recognized for his devotion through the Picard award and for his work on the training team. Congratulations, Admiral, and we're looked forward to a wonderful new year with your help and support! Congratulations to Admiral Turner! While I have not worked extensively with Ann, she is the champion of reminding all staff that the most important purpose of a game is to have fun, and this shows clearly through her work as a staff member as well as though the joy in her crew on the Embassy. Ann makes sure this game is a better and more fun place to play in! Congratulations to Captain Rahman for all the hard work he has done behind the scenes over thee past years. It is great to see him getting recognized for his longterm devotion to SB118 and his recent accomplishments! Congrats, Rich! And Congratulations to Brell! It's been a treat watching Brell climb up the ranks and grow as a game leader and as a writer. I enjoy working through the academy program with Brell and look forward to where he goes in the next years! Congratulations once again to all the winners!

Welcome to the fleet! Hope you had an awesome training and some great stories ahead of you!

Welcome to the fleet, hope to see you around the stars!

I don't really care how it happens just so that it is meaningful to the story... and that dead character stay dead. Nothing ruins the gravity of mortality more than a dead character magically coming back to life after they're been pronounced dead and mourned.

Sal is having fun...

Vitor speaks for us all...

Oh, Orions and their ship names...

Ninja sass: silent but deadly.

The hard part about playing chicken is knowin' when to flinch.

Well... maybe... Those are big crimes to criminals.

Oh, Gerogio, don't let Wyn know about this nickname...

You know you are livin' the good life when you've got great curtains:

Congrats and welcome to the fleet!

Mad love for Mirra:

((Starfleet Command, San Francisco.)) ((Thirty-one Years Ago.)) ::The gentle ripple of applause died down as the new flagship of Starfleet slipped her moorings and eased out into space. The room where he stood was finely decorated as there was also a ball taking place tonight to celebrate the promotion of Commodore Hansen to Rear Admiral. Several officers still stood in groups staring up at the screen as the Enterprise-D majestically cruised away from the shipyards, whilst others took seats at tables, stood gossiping or went in search of new drinks and old friends. Two years aboard the USS Peter had earned him promotion to full Lieutenant, a couple of medals and a host of minor science awards. Now, he was the brand new Chief Science Officer aboard an old friend’s ship. And that old friend was an old friend of the now Rear-Admiral Hansen. He didn’t really like formal occasions, and hated wearing his dress uniform because it meant showing off ribbons. And that usually drew attention considering his age.:: Captain Bell: Bloody hell, Will, crack a smile will you? ::Lieutenant William T. Maxwell turned to face the old friend he’d been thinking about barely a heartbeat earlier. Captain Ronald Bell was a year older than William and had earned a rapid captaincy due to both his abilities and unfortunate losses amongst the senior crew of his previous ship. Having been only a Lieutenant himself, Ronnie had been the only bridge officer left alive during a battle with a pirate cruiser. He’d taken command of the ship despite being wounded and escaped, earning him a rather grand promotion to Captain, and command of the USS Reiver, an Ambassador-class vessel. He was also wearing the freshly awarded Purple Heart from that painful experience. Stood beside him was his first officer, Arturo Bianchi-Rossi. The Reiver’s former chief tactical officer had been promoted to Commander and appointed as Captain Bell’s right hand as he knew the Reiver better than any other crew member. William had been school friends with Ronald, and had gone through the Academy with Arturo, and so despite being a new command team together, it was a reunion of old friends and a happy occasion.:: William: Ach, leave off, Ronnie. You know I cannae stand all ::pause, a vague wave of his hand:: this stuff. ::That earned a bark of laugher from the Italian First Officer.:: Arturo: Why, Ronald, I believe young Max is scared of all the braid floating around the room. ::William mouthed a good-natured obscenity over his glass of scotch as Ronald looked up at the screen. The Captain smoothed his beard absently as he watched the Galaxy-class vessel getting further away.:: Captain Bell: Be us in the morning lads. Off, out and away. ::A glance at William.:: Sure a young boy like you can handle a five year stint out there? ::A smirk.:: William: Handle it better than you, ye overweight pencil pusher. ::A grin:: ::Ronald held a hand to his chest in mock distress. He raised his voice theatrically, gaining a mixture of looks from the nearest officers and their partners.:: Captain Bell: I get you a cushy posting, and you insult me! Insult me! My god who need enemies with friends like you! ::A couple of nearby officers gave William a look of disgust, and right on cue William, Ronald and Arturo burst out laughing like a gang of schoolboys caught in the girls changing rooms. At a wave of Ronald’s glass, the trio made for the bar. William painfully conscious of the clink of his medals and the senior officers staring at them and himself as he passed by.:: Captain Bell: Stop being so stiff lad. Be proud of those shinies, swagger like you own the place and they’ll soon stop staring. ::Easier said than done as far as William was concerned. He ordered himself another glass of scotch and stood with one arm resting on the bar, Arturo opposite and Ronnie in the middle. They chatted this way and that for a little while until Williams words died in his throat. Ronnie smirked over his glass as Arturo followed Williams gaze. Williams eyes had fallen upon quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was stood talking to a group of officers, laughing politely yet subtly looking for an escape. She was wearing a long red gown with a plunging neckline, and her dark brown hair spilled in countless gentle waves all the way to the small of her back. The rest of the room vanished into nothing as they locked gazes for a split second, William feeling his heart miss what felt like about twenty beats. He responded absently as he realised Arturo had spoken to him.:: William: Sorry…? Arturo: She is beautiful, yes? ::A smile at his friend.:: ::William simply gave a dumb nod, unable to take his eyes from her.:: Arturo: You should go and talk to her. ::That got his attention and he choked on his mouthful of scotch.:: William: Don’t be bloody daft, man. She’s, she’s, well look at her. ::Wiping his chin with a napkin:: And I’m, well… ::He pointed up and down himself as if to say ‘The state of me’.:: Arturo: Then I shall talk to her for you. William: Oi, don’t yo- ::But it was too late. Arturo was already gone, and William fidgeted nervously with his cufflinks as he saw Arturo talking to the woman that had captivated him. He turned to Ronnie, who was trying not to laugh and make himself invisible at the same time.:: William: Cannae believe you didnae stop him, Ronnie. Captain Bell: My god. ::Laughing:: Look at you, Will. Twenty-four, a department chief with two silver stars, a captain’s commendation and three purple hearts to your name, and you’re scared of talking to a girl at a party? ::William raised hand to point at his friend:: William: F- Arturo: Gentlemen. ::William turned, about to blast his friend for probably embarrassing him, and froze. The beautiful dark-haired woman was stood beside Arturo, arms linked together, and smiling right at him. The smile was friendly, amused, questioning and playful all at once and William bit his tongue in surprise at her being stood with them.:: William: Ah, bo- Arturo: Ronnie you already know. And this ::A pause as he gently patted her hand:: is Lieutenant Maxwell. William and I were at the Academy together. William: Good evening miss, a pleasure tae meet you. ::A quick glance to Arturo that said ‘I’ll kill you later’.:: I didnae catch your name? ::Arturo smiled again, his eyes sparkling with mischief as William looked at him.:: Arturo: How rude of me. William, I would like you to meet my sister, Abrielle….. --- Lieutenant William T. Maxwell. Chief Science Officer. USS Reiver. Simmed by; Lieutenant (JG) Arturo Maxwell. Tactical Officer. Starbase 118 Operations. O239311AM0.

Another perfect villain description:

Kids, drinking and bugs... don't mix.

Courtesy of Mr. Silveira: So true. So true.

Marines: tough love.