Duty Post Award winner – Gogigobo Fairhug, Starbase 118 Ops (Semper Fidelis)

StarBase 118 Staff · February 17, 2020

Join us for another in a series of interviews with winners of Duty Post awards from our recent 2018 Awards Ceremony. Our goal is to give you insight into how our fleet’s best simmers write, and imagine their characters.

This month we’re interviewing the writer behind Major Gogigobo Fairhug playing a Bardeezan male Marine assigned to Starbase 118 Ops. He won the Semper Fidelis award: “For those Starfleet Marines who have shown great skill in protecting their crew, accomplishing their mission, avoiding tragic loss of life in the line of duty, and upholding the values of the UFoP in times of crisis.”

ORREY: Tell us a little about the writer behind the character — where in the world do you hail from?

FAIRHUG: I hail from London, England and despite travelling fairly extensively around our globe for many years, I seem to have found myself back exactly where I started!

What’s been your favorite part about simming a Marine officer so far?

Gogi never had any aspirations of being a Marine, having started off as a Security Officer. But due to some unforeseen circumstances, he found himself taking up the role of CO for the Iron Jaegers – Starbase 118 Ops’ Marine contingent. Therefore, my favourite part about simming a Marine has definitely been Gogi’s internal (and external) struggle of trying to fit into this culture that he knew little to nothing about previously, while also attempting to keep the Marines onside, since he is effectively an outsider who has been given a position of command over them.

What advice can you give to other Marine officers in the fleet who are striving to sim realistic characters?

I think it’s the same as any other duty post really, in that you should be mindful not to let the duty post define your character. Remember that, while they are a Marine, they are also a person with likes and dislikes, flaws and hobbies etc. I wouldn’t necessarily tell someone to steer clear of the typical “jarhead” Marine, if that is the type of character they’d like to play, but I do think it’s fun to play a character that subverts expectations and I think that Marines are possibly the best characters for that precisely because of the idea that they’re all single-minded automatons that blindly follow orders and have little-to-no personalities. Why not play a Marine who writes poetry in his/her spare time? Or enjoys gardening? The possibilities are as endless as any other duty post.

Was there an inspiration for your Marine character? Perhaps a Star Trek character, a marine or soldier from a drama, or maybe even a real life member of the armed forces?

Well, as I said, Gogi was never intended to be a Marine, so I didn’t have anything like that in mind when creating him. However, I have always been fascinated with the idea of people finding themselves in positions they never expected to be in and stoically tackling the task head on. Someone like Jon Snow from GoT springs to mind – a character that didn’t necessarily seek leadership, but who stepped up when the time came.

In the presentation for the award Captain Taybrim mentioned your initial reluctance to assume the role of a Marine, can you talk about that a little bit?

As I’ve touched on in a previous answer, I was slightly concerned when transferring to the Marines that I would have to play a more gung-ho, shoot-first-ask-questions-later role, which was something I felt didn’t fit with Gogi’s character and traits that I had established up to that point. But Fleet Captain Taybrim did a great job of assuaging my fears and impressing on me that I wouldn’t have to change anything about Gogi at all, citing examples of previous Marine COs who were not your “typical Marines” such as Major Kro. In the end, I saw the role as more of a challenge and actually became excited to play the part and that was entirely thanks to Captain Taybrim.

Is there any advice learned from your time with the fleet that you would like to share with the readers?

Just have fun! Don’t be afraid to approach your CO or FO or even reach out to other writers on different ships/installations about ideas you have, whether IC or OOC. This is a collaborative game and it’s so much fun to share ideas with people and watch them grow and evolve into something that you may not even have imagined yourself.

Thanks for your time, Major Fairhug!

You can read more about Major Fairhug on the wiki.

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