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RP: Origin [Karakoram- Pre Episode One] Job Fair

Alex Hart

FM of NDC
🎖️ Game Master
RP Date
Late YE 40
RP Location
A nepleslian Highschool
Planet Nepleslia, some high school job fair.

Charles Alistair had recently bought out his contract in the Nepleslian Star Navy, and he needed a new job. Fortunately for him, his old high school was holding a job fair. When he arrived at the school, none of the students there recognized him, which made sense.

As he walked through the halls though, he greeted a few of his old teachers. Mr. Michaels, Mr. Damier, Mr. Landin... There weren't many female teachers in Nepleslia. Eventually, he made his way to the large gymnasium. The area was spacious, given how much his home country prized physical fitness, and held hundreds of students.

He wandered the area for a good half hour before finding a booth that looked interesting. Origin industries. He queued in the line, and waited for a while more before finally reaching his turn.

Once the line had dwindled a bit, Charles would find himself in front of one of several representatives from Origin Industries. They all wore the standard Origin uniform- what looked to be a cross between a casual and business suit, with green shoulders, and blue trim around the cuffs, with the exception of a single gentleman on the opposite end of the booth from where Charles had ended up, whom was wearing the all-black variant used by Origin security.

In front of Charles, however, sat a redheaded woman who wore a pair of dark-rimmed glasses, and had what looked like a small cube of random electronics, but was in fact a quantum computer core which she had been messing with to demonstrate potential tasks that employees might be able to partake in if they had the aptitude. She looked up from the cube when the short blonde man approached, and gave him a cheery smile, though it also seemed weary, as if she had been there for quite some time and just maybe was running out of energy.

"Welcome to Origin!" she said to Charles, holding out a hand to shake "I'm Sierra Merkur, one of the lead electronics and computer developers for Origin. What sort of things are you interested in? Origin does a bit of everything and is a great start for young people looking to have a career instead of simply a job!"

Charles took in the scene for a moment before responding to the woman. "Hi, I was looking for a job, and this booth caught my eye. I think I remember watching some cartoon made by you guys as a kid." Charles had indeed seen the show that Origin had put on the air, Ori-V-Frame if he remembered the name correctly, back when he was in high school.

A mecha pilot (Or, He said to himself, whatever Origin calls them. There's like 20 different names for this sort of machine) seemed like the logical job for him available at the fair. And more importantly, it seemed really really cool!

"I was hoping to see if you needed any pilots for your mecha-type-things. It seems like fun." His appearance, once again, was doing him no favors. So far he just looked like some entitled schoolboy who thought that it was as easy as just climbing into a state of the art war machine and running off on some grand adventure.

The woman, Sierra, nodded, smiling softly at the man in front of her, whom she perceived as just a boy, since he looked just like all the other high schoolers she had spoken with so far in the day. "Well, a Mecha pilot is a pretty lofty goal! I don't know if we've ever hired anyone right out of high school for that, but you can definitely start as an Intern with Origin Armor works and try to work your way up from there. We're always looking for hard workers with positive goals like yours"

Charles thought for a moment and began to become a little nervous. "Are you sure there's no way I can start out as a pilot? I've got a pretty decent amount of flight time in a fighter. I'd be willing to prove myself." He seemed adamant (if a little bit antsy) and his youthful face had a serious expression. Surely this child was talking about a game or something like that. There was no way that a kid like this could be serious. Right?

"I'm sure you have, I know simulators these days are pretty good, and even at home games almost feel like the real thing, but, it's not the same as the real thing," Sierra responded, pulling a brochure out and handing it to the 'boy'. looking at the piece of folded paper, Charles would notice a lot of pictures of everything from associates stocking shelves at an Ori-Mart to technicians working on the very Mecha he was asking about, but none of the opportunities listed here included pilot, except for one that said cargo shuttle pilot.

It was the latter that Sierra would point out to him. "Those out of high school have had pretty good luck starting out as shuttle pilots. Many have joined the industrial fleets as starship and even defensive fighter pilots, and a cargo shuttle route is a very safe way to learn responsibility and basic piloting skills in the real world, to boot!"

Charles' thought for a moment. No, that'd be boring, working his way up. After the thrills of flying with Aquila flight for over a year, Charles was not content to work his way up a corporate ladder. He longed to fly again, to prove to himself that he hadn't lost his edge. This was his best opportunity to get back in the air.

"Is there someone I can talk to? I really think-"

"There's plenty of recruiters available. I don't have the ability to actually recruit you today but I can give you our recruitment line number, or you can go into any Origin mart and apply in person," Sierra began, at this point not thinking to let the 'boy' finish speaking as she'd probably heard essentially the same line about twenty times today, and was getting tired of it.

"I also have more in-depth brochures about specific jobs if you'd like to look over them," The redhead also suggested, pointing to a pile of differently titled brochures. Next to which there were a large number of freebies- Lanyards in Origin colors with their international hotline and data link, mechanical pens with the same information, small flashlights whose batteries would outlast most living creatures, and even a few sample bottles of a prototype hygiene gel that hadn't been released to the public yet- again with all of Origin's standard contact info printed on the bottle.

"Are you sure you can't give me some sort of test or something?" Charles asked as he started to pick up on the tone of the conversation, which caused him to become even antsier than before. It was clear to everyone else in the line behind him that the woman across the table was indifferent to his attempts to become a frame pilot, and probably annoyed with him because he wouldn't just leave.

But it was too late for that now. Despite the fact that Charles was just self-aware enough to start realizing what this must look like to the woman across the table from him, he was also just dense enough to cause himself to ignore that realization.

"While normally we would give qualified individuals tests, our policies prohibit us from letting high schoolers pilot Mecha, and that even extends to the virtual reality sim trainers," the redheaded woman explained, trying her hardest to not look a bit exasperated. Perhaps if this kid had been the first student of the day, she could have handled his insistence, but by now it was showing that she'd had a long day and was likely a lot more comfortable messing with the quantum computer core in front of her than she was trying to act as a quasi-guidance councilor for teens who had no idea what they wanted to do yet.

except of course this kid- He really, really wanted to be a Mecha pilot. Sure Origin had had a run of Mecha anime a few years back but after the studio backed out of the deal when Origin started asking them to create content because they had run out of content to provide- Well that was neither here nor there.

"Perhaps when you graduate, we can set something up? Once you turn 18 you can legally join any of the branches of Origin Industries, with the proper background checks and qualifications, of course!"

"Oh, I graduated a few years ago. I actually turned 18 just last month." Charles said, as if that wasn't something that was totally impossible to believe given his appearance. "I was in the NSN for a year and a half."

Charles began to realize now how this all must look to the woman across the table. Surely to her, he must look like some delusional highschooler who doesn't even know what he's saying.

Sierra blinked several times in rapid succession, and then took off her glasses, and cleaned the Durandium-T lenses, rubbed her eyes a bit, and squinted at the boy just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. "But, you're a freshman, aren't you?" she asked, thinking that this kid must be delusional. "Do you mean you're in the Future Leaders and Soldiers Corps or something?" It wouldn't be a stretch for some high schoolers to get really into character with that program and think they actually were in the military, after all.

"If you are in the program, we do offer some extras when you sign on since it does show that you're a hard worker who's willing to serve in some capacity."

"No wait, I know how it looks, but I'm 18. I graduated a little over 2 years ago. I was in the NSN for just under a year and a half." At this point, there was no saving the situation. Everything was going downhill and he probably just looked like a raving lunatic to the woman.

"I was a fighter pilot." He said hurriedly, desperate to not be turned away completely, not paying attention to how absurd that statement would seem to everyone else.

At this point, Sierra had just about had enough. She couldn't take it anymore. It was just too much. This kid was crazy. She sighed, a very heavy, deep sigh that took a long breath before she could perform the motion. she placed her forehead in her palm and gently rocked her head back and forth. "I don't get paid enough for this..." she muttered under her breath, before getting an idea. "You know who does though..." She muttered, a little louder, sort of perking up again at her idea.

The woman pulled out a business card, and quickly scrawled some information on it. A name; Kelly Williams, as well as a direct contact number, and a messaging address. "Here, you know what, just talk to this guy. He can help you. don't worry if he's busy just tell him i sent you..." "Maybe that'll get this crazy kid off my back" she thought, trying to hold back a chuckle at the headache she was going to cause her colleague. She didn't care, Kelly probably deserved it. He was always off doing his own thing lately, dressing all suave, while Sierra had been in a development slump and was relegated to PR events like this one.

She stuffed the business card into Charles' hand and gave it a good shake. "Good luck, kid, you'll probably need it."

Charles just sort of went along with the handshake and was soon pushed aside by the crush of the crowd. It was time to go back to his apartment and relax for a while before giving this Kelly Willams a call.
 
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