Midna-Phobia

Project Freelancer

Once again the look on the man’s face put North on edge. This time he knew he had seen anything and, subconsciously he cast a protective glace at South, who seemed oblivious to what he was seeing, however as if sensing his gaze on her the girl did look over at him. It was weird how used to the amour he was, how it hid so much emotion from the outside world. His words weren’t any more comforting. “I’m guessing the amour makes a lot of what you do difficult though.” South Suddenly spoke up, turning her gaze back to the other man. “I mean so much of body langue is small things in the face, which you wouldn’t be able to see when they’re wearing amour. You’d only have body movement to go off; it’d also eliminate the possibility of lip reading.”

North wasn’t surprised by this at all, it hadn't been something he’d thought about himself but it made sense. “I’m a sharp shooter.” He quickly interrupted, trying to steer the conversation away from the previous topic. He thought it was rather bold of the guy to be talking so openly about it, surely this place had ears everywhere. “Not really much to explain… I take shots and most of the time I hit things. I’m a lot more proficient with long range weapons, the sniper probably being my favourite for obvious reasons. But I’m still fine at close range with firearms.” It didn’t translate to hand to hand combat very well, but once again this small piece of information he kept to himself.

“Information technology… for lack of a better word I guess.” South shrugged casually. It was obvious she was a lot more at ease than her brother was. “Never met a computer problem I couldn’t solve yet.” She seemed entirely confident in her abilities and cast the slightest glace sideways at North for a moment, smiling in a seemingly innocent matter before turning back to Ollie. “Locks and classified information are my personal favourite. People get so creative when they’re trying to protect stuff.”

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“Too bad Pennsylvania is a boy.” South said, out of the blue as they walked.

North looked at her with a bit of surprise, the comment out of the blue for even her. The words themselves even more cryptic. Still, he couldn’t resist and had to ask. “And why is that?”

“I could have nicknamed her Penny.” South replied curtly.

North simply groaned in response, shaking his head. “I will never get your obsession with these nicknames.” He replied, giving her a sceptical look.

“No, no, no!” South insisted. “Look, calling people these state names is weird to me okay? It feels like they’re trying to… dehumanise us or something. Turn us into objects instead of people. I think that’s the idea behind it anyway. So the nicknames are kind of my way or keeping people… people?” She sounded confused, even to herself. “But a lot of them are hard because the names I’m coming up with are girl’s names… I’ve got Kali for California; so far Pennsylvania is Penny for lack of a better name.” She continued to lost off names, stopping as someone called out to them.

North chuckled to himself. “And what about that guy?”

“Carolina? Well… if he were a girl I could have called him Carol… Lina sounds shit… um… give me a minute on this one.” As the man caught up to them the girl continued to mumble to herself as North spoke back to the man.

“I don’t know where you heard that from…” North responded, the idea that him and South were favourites putting him on edge. If that was what people were already saying then it meant they may have targets on their backs. The look, fleeting as it was, in this guy’s eyes was already starting to prove his fears. He seemed friendly enough, but the way he was looking at everyone else put him on edge, like he was sizing them up or something. Then again there were obviously some taking this a lot more serious than he and South. It also indicated that maybe he was purposely trying to mislead them to get information.

“…can’t call him North, because North’s North, we could call him North if we called North Dakota, but Dakota is a girl’s name too and then people may start associating me with Carolina…”

As South continued to talk to herself, North chuckled again for a moment, shaking his head as he continued to talk to Carolina. “And we’re not twins, though it’s a common misconception. We were actually born four years apart. As for ending up in this mess… who knows? We were picked just like everyone else, out of the blue for no reason. I guess they liked my sister’s big brain here…”

“…Car… Arol… Roli… Oli…Lina…Ina…”

“…Which she is using for a very noble cause right now.” He chuckled again, trying to relax. He hoped he was just being paranoid, that his protective nature was just getting the best of him and he was seeing things where there wasn’t any. “And we’re kind of a package deal… maybe they liked the way we worked together…” He had other theories, but he wasn’t about to go proclaiming to the world that South was afraid to kill people.

As they moved to sit down South finally seemed to emerge from her little think tank, though the annoyed groan indicated that it was a less than successful venture. “I don’t know!” She declared loudly. “It would be so much easier if you were a girl. Then you could just be Carol. But no. So now all I’ve got is Carl or Ollie.” She didn’t seem happy with these outcomes and sat down, letting her head drop to the table.

Project Freelancer

I feel like you can just post a long one, there's no rush really so it'll be good to see how he responds to combat trials being a medic

Project Freelancer

Accepted, just remember though that the CS's in this are acting like a file that Project freelancer has on them, so if you write that he has PTSD in it, then they know. Other than that feel free to post away. I've got one ready to go but I'll let you post first :)

Project Freelancer

Of course <3 There are still plenty of space. Bring your friends haha! Just post up a CS, I'll still be around for ages so I can approve it right away and you're right to jump right in.

Project Freelancer

Awesome, also don't worry about the post length. So long as the content is good quality and it's not like a one-liner you're fine :) I also think you had it the hardest because you had to post first so there was nothing to go off. I tried to create a little bit of an opportunity here for characters to interact with the whole getting food thing. Tomorrow will again be individual testing but once the whole leader-board thing is established there will be a lot more chance for interaction in training and just general activities. Most of the official missions they get put on will be teams anyway, since they'd require a range of specialised skills to complete but since there are so few of us it may involve playing a few NPC's.

Also, I forgot to mention this, but we're on a giant space ship.

Project Freelancer

North looked up as the door opened and the next group of those who’d finished their stage 2 assessments came shambling in. He stood slightly, trying to catch sight of South amongst them, it was hard because everyone here was taller than her, but he did see her coming up amongst the last of the group. Smiling, even beneath his helmet he quickly waved her over to him. “So? How’d you go?” He asked, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

She shrugged in response. “Okay I suppose… It’s hard to tell though, you have no idea how everyone else did. Got my butt kicked at hand-to-hand but that’s nothing new.” She shrugged and then winced, rolling her shoulder gingerly. “That California has a real good punch, she knocked me flat in like a minute or something.”

North looked at her in surprise, looking up at the other girl in question and then back to South. “Wait… what? You had to fight another one of us? I just got some training hologamy thing.”

South shrugged in response. “She seemed surprised about it too. It doesn’t matter though, it was never going to be something I did well at anyway.”

Still, that fact that they’d altered the training didn’t sit right with North. He was about to go over and say something to the other girl when F.I.L.S.S’s voice came over the speakers. “Attention agents, thank you for your cooperation with today’s assessments. That concludes the testing for today, stage three will begin tomorrow at 06:00 and agents are expected not to be late. It is recommended you have a good night sleep before then. Thank you.”

Deciding to let it go for now the two moved to the locker-room and stored their amour, both peeling back helmets to reveal platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” North commented absently as he put his helmet away. “Coming?” He asked as he moved off towards the mess hall, South following happily in tow, both on them smiling happily at each other.

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“Firearms accuracy test assessment stage one- begin.”

Raising the training gun, which fired an infrared laser, at F.I.L.S.S’s command North waited as green holographic targets began firing, the targets flashing red once they had been successfully hit. The aim was to hit all the targets as quickly as possible. North felt more confident than he had in all the other tests he’d been issued with so far and completed the stage one in what F.I.L.S.S deemed an ‘impressive time. As stage two began, which was similarly structured however differed in that this time holographic soldiers were being created and were running at him, firing off weapons of their own, so if you were hit you were out.

Despite the fact that he needed to concentrate on the tasks at hand North couldn’t help think about South and how she was doing with her trials. He quickly ducked out of the way of another laser and fired off three quick rounds, ridding himself of the attacker as two more spawned and he fired off before they moved into their attack sequence. Now breathing slightly heavily he waited for the next wave, however they never came.

“Simulation complete. Thank you Agent North. Please take a moment to rest and prepare yourself for the next simulation.”

Moving over to the bench he leant against it, shaking his head slightly. He needed to concentrate, there were a few moments there were he could have done better if he hadn't been worrying about South. A few things began being moved into the room, the movement distracting him from his thoughts and he pushed himself off the wall, observing them curiously.

In the end he did probably better that he’d expected to do on nearly everything, only slipping up on a couple of the tests that were things he naturally struggled with. Walking back into the waiting room he looked around but didn’t see South anywhere, so took a seat on his own and waited for her.

***

Slamming her back into the crate South sank closer to the ground, breathing heavily. This was impossible. There was no way this could be done. She moved just an inch to look around one of the large crates that was acting as a shield between her and the turret however bullets began zipping past her. Rubber bullets of course, this was a training exercise after all. The aim was ‘simple’ as F.I.L.S.S put it; take out the shooter, don’t get shot. However she couldn’t get a clear shot at it. Every time she moved to line up a shot they began firing at her.

She knew what North would do; he’d angle it and perform some amazing ricochet shot off the wall. Her aim wasn’t bad, but she’d never be able to pull off that shot. Leaning against the wall she looked up at the ceiling. Approach it from a different angle. Suddenly North’s words rang in her mind and she had an idea. It was crazy, but it might work. They couldn’t shoot what they couldn’t see. Pointing her gun up at the ceiling she shot out the lights and the room was plunged into darkness. Despite the fact that it was dark she engaged her Active Camouflage and the strobe light, placing it just near the corner of the crate before running forwards, firing off more rounds than necessary until suddenly an alarm started sounding.

“Simulation Complete. Thank you Agent South Dakota.” Back-up lights bathed the room in red and she moved to wait by the corner as men removed the training materials.

“She’s performing unexpectedly well.” One of the observers commented to another. Both were standing off in a small room, full of computer screens that displayed the different agents at different stages of the testing.

“Perhaps.” The man commented, absently. “Then again her issue was never training. It’s her never when faced with human opponents…” He trailed off for a moment. “F.I.L.S.S what’s her next assessment?”

“Field skills, Director.”

“Change that to hand-to-hand combat.” The man commented in almost a bored tone. “And… put her up against agent California.”

Project Freelancer

Hey everyone, first IC post is up. Feel free to post whenever you want, I'm heading to bed now. I'll be keeping a record of all the posts on a word document, just in case something happens to them and if anyone needs to contact me in case of a guild-down feel free to email me at: [e-mail]

The ‘round 2 tests’ are going to be, simple things; shooting, an obstacle course, a stealth capture-the-flag mission, things like that. You’re more than welcome to include and exclude whatever tests you want in your post, including as many or as few as you like and even make up your own but everyone will do the same tests in theory, so even if you write that you only did shooting and obstacle they really did everything anyway.
After everyone has completed round 2, round 3 will consist of a simulation field mission where their speciality will be tested. The catch is the mission is impossible to pass no matter how well they do, though they don’t know this and is designed to test their reaction to stress, unpredicted failures and set-backs.

From there we’ll probably discuss OOC where we think people should be placed on the ‘leader board’ and we’ll discuss where to go from there :D

Project Freelancer

Project Freelancer

The large, white room was filled with only a small ground of people, less than half of the original candidates remained. South Dakota stood stiff, her breathing slightly heavy as her heart pumped. They were facing a one-way mirror and she knew that on the other side there were even higher ups watching them, talking about them, judging. How she’d gotten this far she’d never know.

“Hello agents.” The feminine robotic voice broke the silence of the room and South jumped slightly, gasping in shock. She felt something brush against her hand and she dared a glance to the side to see North Dakota beside her, his hand beside hers, touching, but not holding, just reminding her he was there to comfort her. “Congratulations on making it past the preliminary elimination rounds. I am the Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System. You may call me F.I.L.S.S. It is a pleasure to meet you. Secondary testing rounds will be beginning shortly. These tests are designed to evaluate your abilities in a variety of skills you will need to survive. Please feel free to take a seat and wait until your name is called. Thank you.”

South let out this breath she had been unconsciously holding and moved to sit on the most nearby seat almost immediately, North following along and sitting beside her, placing a hand momentarily on her back. “You okay kiddo?” South looked up at him and nodded slightly. “You’re doing fine.” He assured her. “You made it this far, didn’t you?”

“Somehow.” The girl grumbled, looking back to the floor. “I heard we’re going to be ranked by our results in the next round. I guess we’ll find out how ‘fine’ I’m really doing then.” Beneath her helmet, despite her words, she gave him a smile and it reflected very slightly in her voice.

“You just do things your way.” North advised her quietly. “They’ll throw you into a lot of situations you’re not comfortable with and that are going to try to overwhelm you. But use that big brain of yours and think your way around the problem. Approach it from a different angle-”

The voice of F.I.L.S.S rang out throughout the room, calling the first agent to a testing room. Silence followed as one of them turned and left the room without a word.About ten minutes later another agent was called though there seemed to be no order to it at all. His name followed after another wait and he stood, resting a hand on South’s shoulder. “I’ll see you at the end of this okay?” He said softly, leaving the room as she watched him worriedly.