Agent Carolina (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
onequartershark) wrote2020-12-29 10:51 pm
onequartershark) wrote2020-12-29 10:51 pm
P90 App
APPLICATION
Player Name/Handle: Zita
Plurk Handle:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
zitasaurusrex
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her
Player Status: Former Player?
Other characters: Formerly Cayde-6, Kevin Ingstrom, Karkat Vantas
Invited by: Hi guys it's me again :V
Character Name: Agent Carolina
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Character Journal:onequartershark
OU, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC?: OU
Canon point: End of season 17
Age: Late 30s
PB: Rachel Nichols
SETTING BACKGROUND
Red vs Blue borrows the Halo setting's car and takes it joyriding. It is the 26th century, at the end of a decades-long horrible war in which aliens attempted to wipe out humanity. Most characters' lives have been impacted by Project Freelancer, which was a secret effort to create super soldiers with AI-enhanced armor. Freelancer traumatized its subjects, made them believe they were fighting terrorists when they weren't, used low-performing soldiers in live fire simulations (which they believed were real), and produced AIs by torturing one AI until its personality fragmented.
After one agent figured out what was going on, the program fell apart in fire and infighting before being formally dismantled. The survivors just had to cope.
Despite how serious that sounds, it's mostly an ensemble comedy about a bunch of flawed space losers solving problems through the powers of stubbornness and (sometimes) friendship. Characters spent most of it dealing with the fallout of Project Freelancer and the war. Then, at the end, they got dragged into a whole Thing involving a primordial time god, time travel, and ancient space technology that's close enough to magic. Everyone is so very tired.
HISTORY
PERSONALITY
Carolina, left to her default settings, is competitive, perfectionistic, and intense. Because Carolina was raised by an emotionally absent father who barely acknowledged her, she internalized that maybe the reason he doesn't care about me is I'm just not winning hard enough. Being cared for unconditionally without having to be perfect enough to earn it feels extremely fake. As an adult she has gotten better at recognizing and managing this irrational pattern in herself, but it's still definitely there. Carolina's drive to win is a double-edged sword: she is relentless, fearless, and utterly dedicated when she commits herself. Unfortunately, it is also a siren song to keep pushing a little harder, stretching a little thinner, to ignore just one more objection or warning sign because maybe then it will be enough. She can be short-sighted, cold, and uncaring about who she hurts (including herself) at her worst. Carolina doesn't want to be that person again, but is keenly aware of how close that person can get to the surface when things get bad. Carolina does care about whether others get hurt, and feels intense responsibility to those who depend on her. Failing them scares her, and knowing her desperation to get it right could become the reason she fails them? Awful.
Her history of obsession with perfection means she has honed her major areas of competence (fighting and shooting, mostly) to great effect. Unfortunately, while Carolina is proud of this, she's not as proud of it as she once was. She's out of the part of her life where her whole existence was defined by trying to be the very best like no one ever was at combat. It was an unhealthy, soul-devouring goal that hurt her and people she cared about. However... nothing has really replaced that high in the same way, and she's not sure what else to do with herself now. If Carolina's terrifying competence at kicking the shit out of people can be put to productive use for the good of others, she supposes she can stick with it and feel okay about herself. It just unsettles her to sometimes feel like she's merely upgraded from dishonorable killing machine to honorable killing machine.
Because she has jumped from one all-consuming fighting-related goal to another for so long, she's not even sure how to cultivate other interests. The closest thing she has to a hobby is seeing how long she can participate in her friends' bad garage band before they get brave enough to ask her to stop, and that's more of a long-form practical joke than anything else. Though she can be enormously intimidating and cool-looking when it comes to a fight, outside her comfort zone she's a little awkward and even somewhat dorky. Who is Carolina when she's not fighting? Who is this person who's trying to learn to relax and be socialized and maybe have a sense of humor again? She doesn't know, but she's working on it.
One thing she does know, at least, is she may be kind of a busted person with some sharp edges she hates about herself but by god, she's a lot better now than she was. She can see how insecurity and paranoia and isolation tore her apart in the past, and she's been working for several years on rebuilding her capacity to trust others to support her. As a result, she's finding strength in her desire to support them back. She has accepted that she's not cut out for a "normal" life and there's no road map to wherever it is she's going. There are things, like romance, that she thinks it's probably too late for her to have another shot at, but even so? This is probably the happiest her life has been. Even if she doesn't know for sure what she's doing with it, for the first time Carolina isn't chasing impossible standards or ghosts from the past. She has a home. Maybe the people who live there are sometimes exhausting, stubborn, and frustrating, but she cares about them. Most of the group are terrible at expressing it, and she doesn't always feel worthy of it, but Carolina can bring herself to believe they care about her too.
Being away from home will test her commitment to living a more open life with other people in it. She'll have to adapt what she's learned and extend trust in scary, untrustworthy circumstances and it's going to suck all over again, but she is much better equipped than she was the first time.
CANON POWERS
Carolina used to have some bonus powerups in her armor but without an AI to run them, they're nonfunctional.
POWER SELECTION
No powers, she's pretty tough and useful as it is and I can't think of anything that would actually be interesting to do with them.
ABILITIES
Carolina was part of an elite super soldier project. It may have gone to hell around her, but the fact remains.
She's skilled in hand-to-hand fighting and with a variety of space guns and equipment. She's got a good head for tactics, and experience leading missions, both stealthy and loud. She's not specialized into any one non-leadership skill role (sniper, infiltrator, etc) but is solidly competent.
She's also good at laying low when she has to, and has previously maintained a false identity.
SETTING/SUITABILITY
➤ How do you expect your character to respond to the setting? Even if they plan to rebel in the long term, will they be able to at least obey enough to not get shocked to death?
Carolina will be pissed, but she's a survivor and can mostly play along until it seems like better options are on the table. She doesn't have it in her to pretend to like this but she's not going to be as outspoken as a lot of the crew are.
➤ What do you hope to do with your character long-term?
I don't have big arc thoughts for Carolina at the moment, I just think she'd be fun to play and would like to build CR with people. Castmates are a definite plus, but I'm also excited to see what pans out with people who aren't from her ridiculous universe.
➤ Does your character currently have skills that would allow them to adapt, survive, and do the heroic things being asked of them? If your character doesn't, do you think they'd have the capacity to learn quickly?
She does, she'll be fine.
➤ If they're not used to cooperating with others, what makes you think they'll be able to adapt to cooperating with the group?
Carolina will probably get frustrated with people, but she has come a long way and can deal.
➤ Will your character have long-term plans to rebel against Jorgmund? If so, how? Will they betray the other PCs and cooperate with Jorgmund? If so, how do you plan to handle the negative CR that might arise?
She's likely to fake an acceptable level of compliance but work with others to get around restrictions. She's probably not going to waste her effort or put others at risk to openly turn against the company without a clear idea of where they're going after burning that bridge, though.
SAMPLES
Network Sample
Alright. I've been asked to make a public service announcement.
[ Carolina looks tired. Carolina also sounds tired, her voice dry as the Sahara. From how her eyes keep flicking downward, she's evidently reading something aloud. ]
It has come to the attention of management that certain individuals were... particularly enthusiastic about our recent Mandatory Fun Team Building Activity.
[ She pronounces the capital letters. As for the activity: It was paintball. There were winners. There were losers. There were tears. Carolina is very much among those who may have won a little too hard and has the bruises to prove it.
So do some other people.
She continues, still mostly monotone. ]
While employee participation in Mandatory Fun Activities is compulsory and enthusiasm is encouraged, management wishes to remind you that it is our goal here at Jorgmund to win together. Unsportsmanlike behavior, excessive force, and - [ She hesitates for just a split second, clenching her jaw as she obviously swallows the desire to argue ] - bending of the rules are not welcome in Mandatory Fun and may result in corrective action.
Those who have demonstrated a need for corrective action today already know who they are.
[ She gives the camera a long, significant, withering look. ]
This concludes the public service announcement. Have a pleasant day and...
[ She doesn't roll her eyes, but it's a very near thing. ]
...remember we're all here to make this better, together.
Prose Sample
TDM thread
ADDITIONAL INFO
Carolina has a suit of high tech space armor that the company might allow her to use in appropriate plots/mod discretion. It's shielded, stands up well (but not unbreachably) to weapons, has comm systems, and can sustain her for some hours in a vacuum if needed. It has some extra functionality (speed healing, increased movement speed/reflexes, camouflage, bio scanner, etc) but those modules don't function without an AI to run them. It might be interesting if that could come up, but I'm not looking for that to be a constant thing.
FINAL QUESTIONS
➤ Will your character suspect some kind of guiding intelligence has brought them to the game? Or will they think it was random or done by Jorgmund?
Carolina's had so much weird and stupid nonsense happen to her by this point that her first instinct is this is another weird cosmic coincidence. It's more hopeful than the alternative. Also, Jorgmund doesn't seem smart enough to do this themselves.
➤ If they think it was something other than Jorgmund, like God or some other force of fate, what character traits do they think of that intelligence as having? Is it cruel or kind? Capriciously punishing them or doing it for good reason?
If there's an intelligence behind this, it probably has some weird alien agenda? She's not quick to jump to conclusions on this and is holding out for some actual evidence.
Player Name/Handle: Zita
Plurk Handle:
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her
Player Status: Former Player?
Other characters: Formerly Cayde-6, Kevin Ingstrom, Karkat Vantas
Invited by: Hi guys it's me again :V
Character Name: Agent Carolina
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Character Journal:
onequartersharkOU, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC?: OU
Canon point: End of season 17
Age: Late 30s
PB: Rachel Nichols
SETTING BACKGROUND
Red vs Blue borrows the Halo setting's car and takes it joyriding. It is the 26th century, at the end of a decades-long horrible war in which aliens attempted to wipe out humanity. Most characters' lives have been impacted by Project Freelancer, which was a secret effort to create super soldiers with AI-enhanced armor. Freelancer traumatized its subjects, made them believe they were fighting terrorists when they weren't, used low-performing soldiers in live fire simulations (which they believed were real), and produced AIs by torturing one AI until its personality fragmented.
After one agent figured out what was going on, the program fell apart in fire and infighting before being formally dismantled. The survivors just had to cope.
Despite how serious that sounds, it's mostly an ensemble comedy about a bunch of flawed space losers solving problems through the powers of stubbornness and (sometimes) friendship. Characters spent most of it dealing with the fallout of Project Freelancer and the war. Then, at the end, they got dragged into a whole Thing involving a primordial time god, time travel, and ancient space technology that's close enough to magic. Everyone is so very tired.
HISTORY
- Her mother was a soldier and her father was an AI specialist. Her mother died when she was young, and her father became cold and distant.
- She grew up to become a soldier herself, and was given the codename Agent Carolina in Project Freelancer. She excelled, reaching the top of the competitive ranking board. The fact the project's Director was actually her father was kept secret.
- She entered into a romantic relationship with Agent New York.
- A new agent, Texas, was introduced to the team. In a training exercise, Texas held off three others until two switched to live rounds. York was badly hurt while trying to help Tex. This was upsetting.
- The team's next mission went badly awry until Tex appeared out of nowhere to recover both mission targets. Carolina realized she'd been working in the shadows on past missions too. After this, Tex was added to the leaderboard at the top. Carolina became obsessed with regaining her rank.
- Agent Maine was wounded and rendered mute. Carolina gave him the AI that should've been hers so he could communicate.
- Agent Connecticut (CT) discovered that the AIs were fragments from a single AI named Alpha, which was being tortured to split its personality. Alpha was based on the brain of the Director, and Tex was actually a fragment made of memories of Carolina's mother.
- CT went rogue. Carolina was ordered to bring back her armor.
- CT failed to get Tex or Carolina to listen to her when they found her. Carolina wanted to bring CT in alive, but Tex killed her.
- Things worsened. When Carolina learned Tex was using a powerful AI, she demanded the next two. The Director was angry, but allowed it. It is implied he knew it would hurt her. Interfacing with two AIs at once was disastrous, and Carolina was hospitalized for days.
- While Carolina recovered, Tex found out what CT knew. She then broke into a secure area with York's help. The Director sent Carolina after Tex, and she ended up fighting York too. She believed he'd betrayed her.
- The ship they were aboard crashed due to damage from the infighting, and Carolina was believed dead afterward.
- Carolina laid low. By the time the project was dismantled, she had learned a lot about what happened and was hyperfocused on killing the Director.
- She crossed paths with Agent Washington (Wash) and a group of former simulation troopers. They were going after what she needed: an AI fragment named Epsilon that had been Alpha's memory. Carolina roped everyone into her revenge quest and was awful to them.
- During this, Carolina found audio logs from before York's death. He had still cared for her. That hurt.
- Upon locating the Director, Carolina demanded the others help her break into the facility. Tired of her callousness, they refused. Carolina threatened them and Wash threatened back. After she and Epsilon left, the group decided to go and help.
- Carolina and Epsilon confronted the Director. They found a broken man alone in the dark with a video of Carolina's mother. He was so far gone, Carolina realized she had no anger left. When she departed, her father requested she leave her pistol. She did.
- Now with closure, Carolina and Epsilon became good friends as they chased old equipment from Freelancer that had fallen into bad hands. This led them to Chorus, a colony world manipulated into civil war. Their friends were also tangled up in that after getting stranded there.
- Carolina helped take on the mercenaries running the war. During this she pushed herself beyond the limits of an injury, confronted a vision of her worst fear (everyone she was responsible for dying), and fought two old enemies.
- Epsilon sacrificed himself to save the others at the end. Carolina misses him.
- The grateful citizens of Chorus gave the group a home on their moon. Carolina tried to relax and figure out who she wanted to be now, but didn't really succeed.
- Some time later, a former sim trooper seeking revenge on surviving Freelancers set a trap for Wash and Carolina. They were locked in place and left in a room to die. While their friends rescued them, Wash was shot in the throat. He survived, but suffered permanent brain damage.
- Due to a fight between a primordial time god and its AI servants (it was a bad season) the group were given time travel guns. They used them to do a lot of stupid nonsense, but also to prevent Wash's injury. This caused a paradox that broke time.
- The group went on a quest across time to fix all the damage. The experience highlighted for Carolina how much she cares about and trusts the rest of the group, and how far she's come from the person she was during Freelancer. She was with everyone else to support Wash before he went back to be shot again and set time right. (It was a good season.)
PERSONALITY
Carolina, left to her default settings, is competitive, perfectionistic, and intense. Because Carolina was raised by an emotionally absent father who barely acknowledged her, she internalized that maybe the reason he doesn't care about me is I'm just not winning hard enough. Being cared for unconditionally without having to be perfect enough to earn it feels extremely fake. As an adult she has gotten better at recognizing and managing this irrational pattern in herself, but it's still definitely there. Carolina's drive to win is a double-edged sword: she is relentless, fearless, and utterly dedicated when she commits herself. Unfortunately, it is also a siren song to keep pushing a little harder, stretching a little thinner, to ignore just one more objection or warning sign because maybe then it will be enough. She can be short-sighted, cold, and uncaring about who she hurts (including herself) at her worst. Carolina doesn't want to be that person again, but is keenly aware of how close that person can get to the surface when things get bad. Carolina does care about whether others get hurt, and feels intense responsibility to those who depend on her. Failing them scares her, and knowing her desperation to get it right could become the reason she fails them? Awful.
Her history of obsession with perfection means she has honed her major areas of competence (fighting and shooting, mostly) to great effect. Unfortunately, while Carolina is proud of this, she's not as proud of it as she once was. She's out of the part of her life where her whole existence was defined by trying to be the very best like no one ever was at combat. It was an unhealthy, soul-devouring goal that hurt her and people she cared about. However... nothing has really replaced that high in the same way, and she's not sure what else to do with herself now. If Carolina's terrifying competence at kicking the shit out of people can be put to productive use for the good of others, she supposes she can stick with it and feel okay about herself. It just unsettles her to sometimes feel like she's merely upgraded from dishonorable killing machine to honorable killing machine.
Because she has jumped from one all-consuming fighting-related goal to another for so long, she's not even sure how to cultivate other interests. The closest thing she has to a hobby is seeing how long she can participate in her friends' bad garage band before they get brave enough to ask her to stop, and that's more of a long-form practical joke than anything else. Though she can be enormously intimidating and cool-looking when it comes to a fight, outside her comfort zone she's a little awkward and even somewhat dorky. Who is Carolina when she's not fighting? Who is this person who's trying to learn to relax and be socialized and maybe have a sense of humor again? She doesn't know, but she's working on it.
One thing she does know, at least, is she may be kind of a busted person with some sharp edges she hates about herself but by god, she's a lot better now than she was. She can see how insecurity and paranoia and isolation tore her apart in the past, and she's been working for several years on rebuilding her capacity to trust others to support her. As a result, she's finding strength in her desire to support them back. She has accepted that she's not cut out for a "normal" life and there's no road map to wherever it is she's going. There are things, like romance, that she thinks it's probably too late for her to have another shot at, but even so? This is probably the happiest her life has been. Even if she doesn't know for sure what she's doing with it, for the first time Carolina isn't chasing impossible standards or ghosts from the past. She has a home. Maybe the people who live there are sometimes exhausting, stubborn, and frustrating, but she cares about them. Most of the group are terrible at expressing it, and she doesn't always feel worthy of it, but Carolina can bring herself to believe they care about her too.
Being away from home will test her commitment to living a more open life with other people in it. She'll have to adapt what she's learned and extend trust in scary, untrustworthy circumstances and it's going to suck all over again, but she is much better equipped than she was the first time.
CANON POWERS
Carolina used to have some bonus powerups in her armor but without an AI to run them, they're nonfunctional.
POWER SELECTION
No powers, she's pretty tough and useful as it is and I can't think of anything that would actually be interesting to do with them.
ABILITIES
Carolina was part of an elite super soldier project. It may have gone to hell around her, but the fact remains.
She's skilled in hand-to-hand fighting and with a variety of space guns and equipment. She's got a good head for tactics, and experience leading missions, both stealthy and loud. She's not specialized into any one non-leadership skill role (sniper, infiltrator, etc) but is solidly competent.
She's also good at laying low when she has to, and has previously maintained a false identity.
SETTING/SUITABILITY
➤ How do you expect your character to respond to the setting? Even if they plan to rebel in the long term, will they be able to at least obey enough to not get shocked to death?
Carolina will be pissed, but she's a survivor and can mostly play along until it seems like better options are on the table. She doesn't have it in her to pretend to like this but she's not going to be as outspoken as a lot of the crew are.
➤ What do you hope to do with your character long-term?
I don't have big arc thoughts for Carolina at the moment, I just think she'd be fun to play and would like to build CR with people. Castmates are a definite plus, but I'm also excited to see what pans out with people who aren't from her ridiculous universe.
➤ Does your character currently have skills that would allow them to adapt, survive, and do the heroic things being asked of them? If your character doesn't, do you think they'd have the capacity to learn quickly?
She does, she'll be fine.
➤ If they're not used to cooperating with others, what makes you think they'll be able to adapt to cooperating with the group?
Carolina will probably get frustrated with people, but she has come a long way and can deal.
➤ Will your character have long-term plans to rebel against Jorgmund? If so, how? Will they betray the other PCs and cooperate with Jorgmund? If so, how do you plan to handle the negative CR that might arise?
She's likely to fake an acceptable level of compliance but work with others to get around restrictions. She's probably not going to waste her effort or put others at risk to openly turn against the company without a clear idea of where they're going after burning that bridge, though.
SAMPLES
Network Sample
Alright. I've been asked to make a public service announcement.
[ Carolina looks tired. Carolina also sounds tired, her voice dry as the Sahara. From how her eyes keep flicking downward, she's evidently reading something aloud. ]
It has come to the attention of management that certain individuals were... particularly enthusiastic about our recent Mandatory Fun Team Building Activity.
[ She pronounces the capital letters. As for the activity: It was paintball. There were winners. There were losers. There were tears. Carolina is very much among those who may have won a little too hard and has the bruises to prove it.
So do some other people.
She continues, still mostly monotone. ]
While employee participation in Mandatory Fun Activities is compulsory and enthusiasm is encouraged, management wishes to remind you that it is our goal here at Jorgmund to win together. Unsportsmanlike behavior, excessive force, and - [ She hesitates for just a split second, clenching her jaw as she obviously swallows the desire to argue ] - bending of the rules are not welcome in Mandatory Fun and may result in corrective action.
Those who have demonstrated a need for corrective action today already know who they are.
[ She gives the camera a long, significant, withering look. ]
This concludes the public service announcement. Have a pleasant day and...
[ She doesn't roll her eyes, but it's a very near thing. ]
...remember we're all here to make this better, together.
Prose Sample
TDM thread
ADDITIONAL INFO
Carolina has a suit of high tech space armor that the company might allow her to use in appropriate plots/mod discretion. It's shielded, stands up well (but not unbreachably) to weapons, has comm systems, and can sustain her for some hours in a vacuum if needed. It has some extra functionality (speed healing, increased movement speed/reflexes, camouflage, bio scanner, etc) but those modules don't function without an AI to run them. It might be interesting if that could come up, but I'm not looking for that to be a constant thing.
FINAL QUESTIONS
➤ Will your character suspect some kind of guiding intelligence has brought them to the game? Or will they think it was random or done by Jorgmund?
Carolina's had so much weird and stupid nonsense happen to her by this point that her first instinct is this is another weird cosmic coincidence. It's more hopeful than the alternative. Also, Jorgmund doesn't seem smart enough to do this themselves.
➤ If they think it was something other than Jorgmund, like God or some other force of fate, what character traits do they think of that intelligence as having? Is it cruel or kind? Capriciously punishing them or doing it for good reason?
If there's an intelligence behind this, it probably has some weird alien agenda? She's not quick to jump to conclusions on this and is holding out for some actual evidence.