[IMPORTANT] Conducting Yourself As a VAMP. [OOC/IC]

Connecting...

Welcome, units. Welcome to your basic lesson on etiquette.

That's [et-i-kit, -ket.] 
Conventional requirements as to social behaviour; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community.
In other words, or in... stricter words, read these and comply to them or it will lead to your termination in the division, and possibly even the MPF as a whole.

Part 1 - Your Place Here.

First of all, you must know your place in this well-oiled machine known as the MPF. I will start by addressing the ground units, this is you, i5s - i1s. You are here so I don't have to be, let's make that clear. I have enough responsibilities, and yours? Yours is to make sure that I have the least possible. That means, you're the ones on the GROUND. It's in your name. You're the ones outside of the Nexus, making sure that while I'm managing this division, the rebellion isn't breathing down my neck. 

Us VAMPs have a standard for respect towards not only eachother, but other units of the MPF. If you disregard me, I won't mind, however; if you dare disregard another Divisional or above, I will be having more than a word with you -- if they haven't already. I'm hoping this is made clear. I've done it before, and I will do it again. You must understand how to conduct yourself around higher-ranking units. Rather self-exaplanatory, it is with the utmost respect humany possible.

Though I shouldn't have to; I will be going over a standard "salute" with you. The salute, yes. If you don't know what this is, you better go back to basic. Now, I've been experiencing units just walking up to me and slamming their hand onto their forehead, all slouched -- before just walking off. In order to salute me, or anyone else in this force, you shall not ever look tired, sickly, or exhausted -- unless you are physically unable of not looking so. Upon approaching me, or another unit of Divisional or above, your heels are to come together, your posture is to straighten completely, and you shall A) Look up at us, or B) Look straight ahead. Head up, either way. You are to now place your right hand, fingers extended, against where your forehead would be under your mask. I have been specific enough in this post; if you fail to do this, this has been proper warning. I don't care as much as other Divisionals will, and you /will/ get in shit for fucking up with another Divisional.

Now, you must understand that I try to treat my units with the respect they deserve, and I try to be as... easy on them as possible, however, when you make it impossible for me to do this, you will learn never to do it again.

Now, addressing anyone Officer to above; the... "high command" units. You are to follow the same etiquette as i5s - i1s. You are not exempt from punishment. You only have command over said i1s - i5s. And even then, you must understand your place too. You are not here to command units, you are here to assist me in commanding units. You will never be in-charge until I am uncapable of performing on the field, in which case, a certain Elite will be chosen to take my place. As of right now, he or she who will be eventually taking my place will not be named until it happens. And it won't happen for a while. This is subject to change, and it is entirely at my discretion. Moving on...

Part 2 - Learning When Not To Speak

Sometimes it's better to stay silent than to look like a fool. It's true. Sometimes you should just sit back, and let me handle things instead of starting something we don't need. Believe me, OOC shit has ruined servers and it will not hesitate to ruin this one. I expect you to keep a cool head, and know when to shut the fuck up for a minute. This generally pertains to forum posts calling your character out for "mingery" or whatever, or OOC discussions about whether or not a situation is S2K or not. Either way, it's important to me that you understand I /can/ handle 90% of the stuff you need me to, so long as you inform me about it. I'm always here for you to vent to; your anger is much better dissolved to me, than in front of another staff or server member. Remember; when you embarrass yourself, you also embarrass me and the rest of VAMP. Try to keep personal problems to yourself IC'ly and OOC'ly, no one likes to hear about your girlfriend breaking up with you, or your pet passing away. I understand how this can feel, but please, keep it to private messages or steam messages. Don't cloud OOC and bring other people that are just here to RP down.

Be conscious of what you do, and how you act -- both IC'ly and OOC'ly. I'd like to keep this division up in terms of reputation again, in both instances of IC and OOC. It's important you look competent, or you will be removed from the MPF authorized by me, Gerby, after fair enough warning. As much as I understand how hard it is to act with 100% competence, it's important you try as hard as you can. This will incur a 3-strike-rule; if you manage to damage to reputation of the division in either OOC or IC ways, after 3 strikes, you will be A) Removed from the division, or B) removed from the MPF depending on the severity of what you did and/or could possibly do. This is for EVERY UNIT, including myself and command units under Divisional of other divisions.

Remember I'm always here for my units OOC'ly and IC'ly; we must work, and if that means my having to comfort someone OOC'ly for them to be able to RP better IC'ly, I will. Feel free to add me, Gerby, to talk or to keep up with everything happening in the division and the MPF. Remember that we're brothers and sisters here, and you should respect all of us as we will respect you. Don't talk shit about others in VAMP, or I will personally talk to you. Don't ever suggest anything that breaks the basic server rules and role-playing etiquette. Don't ever disregard my, or another staff member's word. Don't ever disregard another Divisional or Commanding unit's word. Don't ever get in arguments over petty things, if anything, let me or another staff members deal with it. And last, but not least, never go on an LOA OOC'ly or IC'ly without informing a superior, and making SURE that they inform the rest of us. Especially me.

Don't ever forget, as a unit, that you are not our first priority. There are much more important things currently going on; and after all, you're only here to aid in a combined effort from us all. You shall never consider any selfish motives, and always put others before yourself. Especially in VAMP; that means giving your own life for another unit's, no matter what. We are brother and sister here, and we will do anything for one another. No one is better than anyone else, we only have specified command roles to keep the division working properly. That's the same reason I've taken the time out of my day to write this. Never hesitate to approach me, especially to report anti-citizens. Anyone carrying a firearm, or a weapon made or found specifically for combat is and will be considered a anti-citizen. We don't need a name; a description fits just fine. Any units above you will always hear you out about anti-citizen activity, and any tips can help. No matter how little.

Don't hesitate to have personal talks with me; as I stated before, if I'm not busy, you can talk to me or another unit if something is keeping you from performing at your best; we will try our best to sort it out, no matter what it is. Never hesitate to talk to me about medical issues you're having; I'm not the best at diagnosing problems, however, I do have a lot of experience and there's a good chance I'll be able to figure something out to aid you in your problems.

You may also approach me for personal conversation, again, if I am not busy. First of all, it'd be good to ask if I'm in the middle of anything before initiating conversation. That goes for any unit you wish to speak to about anything other than work issues. You will be given leisure time, I don't expect you to perform in tip-top shape without any rest. If you believe that exhaustion is keeping you from performing, speak to me or another superior about some time to relax. It helps everyone, including myself, and we all can't work 24/7. It's hard, and I understand that. I will always understand your problems, and so will other units. We shall not laugh at you, or ridicule you for getting tired or having problems; you can't forget that we're still human, despite how we should be acting in front of citizens. However, I will get to that later.

Remember that I will always consider your word, no matter what. But my word is FINAL. You must understand that as much as I will sympathize with you, and listen to you, I am still the woman in charge and; after consideration of what you say, if I deny any requests or believe a suggestion is not a good one, you shall not protest, and instead remain positive and continue thinking about more suggestions or requests. Better ones. I will never dismiss your word only because you are in-experienced, sometimes the best ideas come from beginners. They bring a new thought process, and sometimes it's better.

As I said before, you need to know when not to speak. But you also must know how to conduct yourself when you /do/ speak. Speak with the utmost respect to everyone, at least, however much is due. Remember, you don't get to decide on a problem unless it's mutually agreed. The only people who have /veto power/ are adminges. That's not to say we don't value your suggestions, or ideas; we still do. However, if we -- having considered them -- still don't believe they'd be a good addition, we will deny it. That's no reason to be mad, and that's nothing against you.

Remember, you must never get too angry. And never let IC actions affect OOC decisions; and vice versa. If you're curious about anything in this thread, contact me on Steam at. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198064805234/ . I'm online rather often; read my profile for any information about me. Either way, I'm getting off-topic from the title of this section. Anger only allows you to make the wrong decision, and to regret it later. When speaking, you must consider how the other person feels, you must first assume every point of theirs is 100% valid, and only attempt to make them think differently. Never push your belief unto another, and never immediately shoot down their beliefs just because it's coming from them. Assumptions make an ass out of me, and you. Nor' do they ever help your cause.

Never attempt to speak for the division, it wouldn't be the first time someone makes an assumption and highly misrepresents what we stand for, or how we act. Remember calmness is key.

To re-cap, the general rules of thumb are :: A) Never make assumptions. B) Stay calm. C) Respect everyone. D) Never speak for the division. E) Never take IC things OOC, or OOC things IC. I guess that about covers it all.

The way you act in front of citizens makes a huge impact on the Union as a whole. You shall never show them that we are weak, that we have weaknesses, or what those weaknesses are. As obvious as that is, this must be repeated. You are to never have a relationship further than friendship with a citizen. Emotions never turn out well, I speak from experience. So just don't. If I notice anything iffy with you and another citizen, I will be speaking to you. No exceptions. I don't ask that you act like some hardass tough guy, just don't expose the Union's secrets to some frail looking boy or girl that seems "trustworthy.". Keep in mind that who you're talking to most likely despises you; eighty percent of citizens most likely do, at least, that is the mindset you must use while interacting with them.

No matter how trustworthy they seem, never fully trust anyone. Even your brothers and sisters in fellow divisions. I recommend your allegience is to only be pledged to the Union as a whole, and not once specific person. Though I ask you to always obey me, I will never ask you to do anything that could pertain to indefinite death. Or anything I wouldn't do myself. I may ask you to do some rather odd things, but, I promise your life will never be endangered by me on purpose. Though you may lose your life in the force, it will never be on purpose, and I; and my fellow units, will always do the best we can humanly possible to assist you in keeping your life, and never losing it. Your safety is important to us, as it would be to anyone else.

Remember to treat citizens as your enemies, while at the same time treating them with respect. We need the citizens on our side; as many as we can get. Though it may be hard, you are to treat citizens with the utmost respect possible, however, if they do break a law or make it known they aren't and will never be with us, I give you full permission to be as ruthless as possible without breaking your code of ethics, or the rules of the Union. End of story. The rules apply to everyone, and they're here for your and my safety. If you need advice, refer to your field manual, then a peer, then me. Always me last. I can't emphasize this enough, don't ever come to me for something that you could've gotten from someone else who's A) Less busy. B) Doing less important things, or even C) you could've found in your field manual. This will lead to me probably taking on a rather stern tone and talking to you for a while about making better decisions.

Ah, yes. Common sense. You are to treat everything with common sense here. As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn't do it in real life, you wouldn't do it IC'ly -- unless of course IC reasons that don't exist OOC'ly are pushing you to. Let's start with my basic pet peeves of HL2RP.

"Adrenaline"... Adrenaline does not exempt you from pain, nor' does it suddenly make you disregard your injuries. If you have a broken leg, you can't fucking walk on it. "Adrenaline", despite being a real hormone, does not just fucking make us invincible cyborgs. For the love of everything, don't ever use "adrenaline" as an excuse for being exempt from pain. It's impossible. We're supposed to be knowledgeable about anything pertaining to medicine and medicinal sciences. That means at least make it look like you know a thing or two about it, other wise you embarrass me, yourself; and the division as a whole. Another rule of thumb, pretend adrenaline doesn't exist -- and if you are for some odd reason using it as a factor, make sure it's barely noticable. Because it's genuinely annoying, and I'll be speaking to you OOC'ly about it if it happens.

Next up, despite being a weeaboo myself, don't bring your OOC shit into RP. Don't come on the server and get a HELIX unit and just walk around speaking Japanese dual-wielding katanas, like some ninja-warrior. And seriously, de-sexualize your units. I haven't seen it happen often, but I've seen it before. People get a unit just to ERP and they only fuck up how the Combine has been moving forward. This applies to everything, if you're into Homestuck, or something, don't come and make a unit with grey skin and two horns or something. If you're a brony, don't make your unit a goddamn pony. This goes without saying, just, no.

"ERP"... Now, I don't mind ERP. Don't get me wrong, it's a part of RP and we've all pretty much done it every now and then. But don't, as I said before, come into the MPF expecting that it'll just be a free ticket to ERP with all the units you want. I couldn't care less if you had the odd relationship in my division, but, if I catch you going at it like rabbits IC'ly, you can be sure something will be about to go down. Please keep ERP to a minimum, in the MPF and as a citizen. ERPing every thirty seconds only sends IC relationships downhill, and it's sad having to even look at it in console. Getting back to the common sense of it all, don't ever break the basic rules of logic. Don't be irrational OOC'ly, don't be extremely selfish OOC'ly, don't make your character some weird masochist with Z-Cup breasts. If it's unlikely OOC'ly, it's unlikely IC'ly. Done. Do I have to say more?