Back in my day, we had to walk 15 miles, in the snow, both ways… We’ve all heard stories like this at some point in our lives, and the Fleet at Starbase 118 is no exception. Spend a little time reading your Ship Chat, the Officer’s Club, or chatting in the Brew Continuum, and you’re bound to hear tales from some of the veteran writers about the way back times of their Lower Deck Days.
Some of these stories sparked the idea of interviewing members who have been writing with the Fleet for long enough to see trends come and go and share with us their perspective on how the times have changed. Maybe we will even get some juicy stories along the way.
We’ve tracked down Lieutenant Commander Alora DeVeau, who writes for the Chief Science Officer on the USS Eagle.
S. Richards: You have been around a long time, and you are a well-known member of the fleet. How does it feel to be looked at as such an integral part of our community?
DeVeau: You’re very kind to say that, but I don’t think I’m an integral part. I’m active, certainly, and I love to help in any way I can, but if I had to leave for some reason, others would step into the role.
As for how it feels to be an active member in this community, that depends on the day. LOL
Mostly, it’s good, and that’s why I stay. There are always downsides to everything – conflict, drama, it’s gonna happen – but at the end of the day, I love the game, I love the people, and I love the community.
How long have you been a member of Starbase 118, and during those years, what has been the biggest change you’ve seen? How has that change impacted the community?
I joined SB118 back in 2013. While this doesn’t make me the member who’s been here the longest (that distinction goes to Wolf, who is a founding member!), I am probably in the top 10-15% (I’m estimating here). That also means I’ve been here long enough to see certain changes.
Back when I first joined, we didn’t use membership ID numbers, and volunteers would count each person’s contribution and send the numbers to the list. Now, we have Aria, which tracks that for us. At the time, we also put narration in between double colons. That style changed in 2019 while I was on LOA.
This actually reminds me of another change – the Newsletter. Back in my day, SB118 had a weekly newsletter that came out with information, a featured sim or two, and other tidbits. I’m sure it was a lot of work, and while I don’t know the details, I imagine the forums and Discord made it redundant. Of course, the most recent change has been moving away from the forums and completely to Discord.
Among all the changes, I’ve seen many structural changes. SB118 is a lot more organised in some ways than it used to be, but I feel like this has manifested out of necessity rather than anything else. As we’ve gotten larger and added more task forces and other events, good organisation is necessary for these task forces to run and for the events to happen.
Over the years, how we write and roleplay in this community has also changed. I don’t just mean the formatting, but the style. Back when I started, minimal narrative wasn’t as big of a deal. Over the last few years, I’ve seen encouragement to increase the quality of our writing skills, which I like. I’ve become a better writer, thanks to SB118. Not only that, we play this game and roleplay our characters through writing. When we have more detail, it really helps set the scene and visualise the characters and the scenes, and makes for a much more enjoyable experience.
Lastly, the format we use for missions has changed quite a bit. I’m not sure when it started, but at some point during my tenure, staff introduced the three-act system. While it’s certainly not necessary for a ship to use this (and some don’t!), I find it has helped me figure out how to organise missions better.
I’m sure other things have changed over the years that I don’t recall at this moment (I’m getting old, my memory isn’t what it used to be!), but that’s probably enough for this article anyway. 😀
Now, Alora hasn’t been your only character in the time that you’ve been writing with the Fleet. How many different main characters have you had? Out of all of your previous characters, who would you want to bring back, even if just for a day? What made you pick them?
Actually, I’ve written Alora the entire time I’ve been in SB118 (except when I took my LOAs because…well, life!). I did, however, try to do a secondary way back in 2017 (Elena Sands), but my life was a bit too chaotic to make that sustainable. Now that I’m no longer tutoring, I’ve been able to successfully write for a secondary – Katsim Peri over on the Butler.
However, if you’re talking about NPCs….I’ve lost count. I have a list on my wiki profile, but it’s not exhaustive!
As for previous characters…I did get to bring Juanita Sanchez for a little bit on Denali, which was nice. Maybe someday Elena will also show up again. 🙂
Writing as long as you have, and for such a diverse cast of characters, you’ve got plenty of experience. How has your writing style changed through the years, and what do you know now that you wish you had known back at the very beginning?
My skills have only improved, and I think a lot of that is because I watch and learn from some wonderful writers here. I’d make a list, but if I did that, I’d forget someone, so I shan’t, but reading good authors is an excellent way to help your own writing. In addition, some of the standards that we ask for in our community help me to remember not to slack too much when I write, and that while I’m writing for myself, I’m also trying to convey a story and scene that others are reading. Details in our narration are integral to helping others visualise what’s happening.
I don’t know what I know now that I wish I knew back then. We all grow and evolve, and sometimes my writing changes from day to day. On occasion, I experiment with a voice, or I’ve been reading something that influences the next sim I write. Instead of looking back, I’d like others to look forward. Do you enjoy writing? I hope so, because that’s a big reason why we’re here. So don’t stop writing. Don’t look back and go ‘Oh, I’m terrible’, but look forward and say, “How can I improve?” Ask for help, get advice, look at the writing workshop on the wiki, read other authors, and make sure you’re having fun.
Alright, now to get down to the reason we are all here. Tell us your favorite story from back in the day.
There are many, many favourite moments in the past, and a lot of nostalgia associated with them – from remembering characters that have come and gone, to seeing what my character was back then and how she has become the person she is now. I will share one particular favourite mission we did back in the day with you, because it still sticks out as one of the most enjoyable ones, and it opened a lot of opportunities for character development.
Back when I was on the USS Garuda, Aron Kells, played by Tony, who now plays Lia Rouiancet, and Roshanara Rahman, played by Rich, who now sims as Rivi Vataix, were CO and FO, respectively. Because of Alora’s particular love for plants (and animals. She keeps more plants because it’s easier to have many of them as an officer, especially on a ship…but I digress), Rich threw out a joke about her plants taking over the ship. I jumped on it and it became a mission. The entire ship became overrun. Even Santa wasn’t immune (fun fact, my mom helped write that introductory post). Eventually, this led to some dire consequences, but it was also just a really fun mission with a shipload of awesome people. Poor Quinn Reynolds had to deal with it all while pregnant, too. 😃
You can take a look at the mission called Little Ship of Horrors on the Wiki, but you can also visit the Garuda archives to read it all for yourself.
That’s still one of my favourite missions, and there are a lot of fond memories of the people with whom I wrote back then.
Thank you so much for your time!
You can read more about Commander Alora DeVeau on the wiki.
