enodia_ic | LEADERSHIP EVALUATION

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LEADERSHIP EVALUATION

Exploring the Riftlands can be a dangerous endeavor, even for Liminals, so it's always important that members of the Explorer Division keep their powers honed, their bodies fit, and their minds sharp. It's also important to ensure that those most qualified to be in charge are placed there. To that end, Samuel J. Thornton has called all the members, both primary and supplementary, together for their first Leadership Evaluation.

Thornton holds these evaluations every few months to determine who will be placed in charge when the Division divides into smaller groups to carry out different missions and investigate different areas. The evaluation has three parts: combat practice, an obstacle course, and the (much dreaded) written strategic/leadership assessment. The evaluations tend to take a few hours and moods among the Division members run the gamut. Some take it quite seriously, studying and training ahead of time and giving it their all. Some act as if it's just another requirement from Thornton and treat it like any other training session to be overcome or endured. Some only show up because they know if they don't Thornton will put them on administrative leave (ugh). Regardless, it's a big day for the Division.

During combat practice, each member will face off against a handful of robotic combatants with customized programming based on Thornton's assessment of their skills. This is held in a moderately-sized training room in the middle of the hall. During the obstacle course, each member will be given places to reach and tasks to complete throughout a maze of obstacles that run the gamut from shifting walls to collapsing floors to blasts with a numbing (and gradually paralytic) effect and beyond. The engineers in Operations and Security have really outdone themselves this year! This is held in the enormous training room at the end of the hall. During the written strategic/leadership assessment, each member will take a long, comprehensive exam designed to assess their reasoning, their empathy, their strategic prowess, and their leadership ability. This is held in a moderately-sized training room at the beginning of the hall that has been filled up with desks.

Non-Explorer residents from across the Station are also welcome to participate if they want to test their mettle, though they may find themselves being recruited by Thornton if they do exceptionally well. Otherwise, they are welcome to show up and watch the action through a series of monitors that line the basement hallway. Even the room with the written exam appears on one screen for some unknown reason. It's a bit of an event. [Non-Explorer Character A] even brings refreshments and has printed up some little flags and trinkets featuring the names of some more impressive (at least in their opinion!) contenders. Are they trying to be supportive or psych someone out or just trying to make a buck? It's hard to say.

» THE EVALUATIONS: Complete the form below to have your character's leadership evaluation scored. Only characters that comment here are eligible for leadership roles.

HOW THIS WORKS

Every few months, the Explorer Division will hold Leadership Evaluations. These evaluations will use player forms and RNG to determine which characters are going to be placed in leadership positions during upcoming explorations of the Riftlands. This doesn't translate to any particular power or authority in the game day to day, but is something for players to play off of and will change throughout the course of the game.

IC all characters in the Explorer Division must complete this evaluation. Even if a player doesn't complete this form OOC, it will be assumed that their character competed unless specified elsewhere.

Thornton is notoriously strict and difficult to please, so it isn't uncommon for evaluation scores to be absolutely brutal. But don't take it personally. He's just trying to help you realize your potential!

Fill out the form below to see how your character handles the evaluation!

» DURING THE EVALUATIONS: For those lingering in the halls waiting on their results, those watching the challenges play out on the monitors, and anyone else that's hanging around.

» AFTER THE EVALUATIONS: After the evaluations have wrapped up for the day.

» OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

(CODE)

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Dorin isn't here in any sort of official capacity. Instead, he'd come along to be supportive and to follow the lead of his peers. Unfortunately, it's all a bit harder to watch than he'd expected. His well-honed caretaker instincts are making him fidget as each assessment unfolds and every non-trivial injury that's inflicted makes him frown or flinch subtly. Even his tentacles are twisting around restlessly on the inside.

Spotting Jack further up the hall, however, he does feel a small pang of relief. At least there's someone around that can help quickly and efficiently if it comes to that. He hesitates but gradually makes his way over to Jack, hooking his hands together behind his back as he offers the other man a small, tense smile.

"This is...something, isn't it?" he says quietly before clearing his throat and adding with what he hopes is a brighter tone, "They're all something. I mean. They're...very good at what they do."

Edited (Better late than never? aaaah ) 2023-05-28 02:55 (UTC)

Jack glances at Dorin as he approaches, not really thinking—his expression still a little tight with the residual tension of watching yet another one of their colleagues run headfirst into a trick wall. Jack will readily laugh at himself, but he's never been one for schadenfreude. Seeing someone else get hurt makes him uncomfortable. But once he registers that it's Dorin coming his way, Jack relaxes into a proper smile. He notes that Dorin has his hands behind his back, though whether it's out of habit or intentional, Jack can't tell. Either way, he's grateful for the gesture.

Some are a little better than others, Jack thinks, but that wouldn't be polite to say. Instead, he makes a noise in the back of his throat, something like agreement, then exhales heavily. "Director Thornton really isn't messing around, is he?"

"It makes you wonder what's out there, doesn't it?" There being the Riftlands, whatever remains in Burlington.

Dorin registers that moment of change in Jack's expression, from tense to warm, and it leaves him feeling both grateful to his co-worker and uncertain about his decision to come over. Is the other man putting on an act for his benefit? He hopes not. But he doesn't know Jack well enough to be able to tell and he's already interrupted the man's thoughts. There's nothing to do now but stay.

At mention of Director Thornton's approach, his own smile wanes a little and he shakes his head. "No. He certainly isn't," he agrees, "But...he knows what's needed. Right? Or he wouldn't be in charge of something so important." While he does believe this, he knows it isn't the point, and Jack's next question leaves much less room for aimless affirmations. He finds himself glancing down at his shoes.

"...Yeah. My friend Noah's been out here for five years. And I...still don't think I understand it either. What it's actually like out there. What they actually do out there. Even with all the stories." Though it wouldn't be at all unlike Noah to keep the worst details from him. The older man is always trying to protect him. The realization sparks a sharp pang of guilt but he forces himself to look back at Jack all the same. "But I'm sure your being here will make things easier on them. At least."

That's nice of Dorin to say. Jack disagrees, but he doesn't voice it—he only laughs a little, pleasantly ambiguous. What will make things easier, he believes, is closed evaluations. But maybe spectators are part of it; maybe Thornton is testing to see how the Explorers perform under pressure. Or derision.

"Noah," Jack repeats, considering the name. He may have seen a 'Noah' on network posts, but he's not sure. "I don't think I've met him yet." Jack turns to Dorin more fully. "Did you come out here for him?"

"No," Dorin admits, giving another small shake of the head, "I came out here for me." Even now, it's difficult to put the feelings that sent him running back to IRIS into words. He'd felt shaken. Too seen and too out of place and too hopelessly other to try living out there anymore. Fortunately, though, Jack didn't ask. So he's able to focus on his friend instead.

"But Noah and I went to school together for a long time. So being here together, being roommates again, it's...sort of the best." He laughs sheepishly, but for the first time in the conversation, his smile fully reaches his eyes. After a pause, he adds, "You should meet him! Come over to ours sometime. I think you guys would get along." After a second, more hesitant pause, he asks, "...Did you come here for Annie?"

While Dorin doesn't know exactly what's going on between the two of them, there seems to be something going on between the two of them. And the idea's sort of sweet, honestly.

Edited (I'm Sorry About Him.) 2023-05-29 04:04 (UTC)

Jack watches Dorin's face change, how his smile becomes fuller as he talks about Noah. It's sweet—both the change as it occurs across Dorin's face and the sentiment behind it. And it makes Jack feel bad in comparison, meeting Dorin's sincerity with insincerity as he replies, "Yeah. I came here for Annie."

Technically true, but not true in the way Dorin is asking. So Jack is grateful to add, "And of course, that sounds fun. We should all hang out."

Here he pauses, frowns slightly, because while Annie and Noah must know each other she hasn't mentioned him as a close friend. Or even a friend. But that's probably nothing; Jack assumes Annie can get along with anyone.

Jack shifts, crossing his arms as he glances back into the combat training room. Nothing life-threatening seems to be underway. He turns back to Dorin again. "What do you mean, 'came out here for you?'" he asks, trying to be conversational.

If Dorin realizes that Jack is being insincere, he doesn't show it at all. Instead, his smile takes on a knowing but somehow shy quality, as if he's been let in on something important and he's happy to be trusted. He nods in acknowledgment of what he's been told and in agreement for their shapeless future plans, before his eyes follow Jack's back to the monitors. Even with nothing especially dangerous going on, he feels his breath catch a little.

He's still looking at the hectic scene playing out in the training room when Jack speaks up again. It seems to catch him off-guard and when he looks back at the other man, his expression is difficult to read. "I just...needed a change. You know?" It's an answer. And, even if it's not a meaningful one, he hopes that it's an acceptable one.

That's a pretty big change, Jack wants to point out. Working for IRIS isn't something most people take lightly—working for IRIS at a remote station even less so. But there's something closed-off in Dorin's expression now, so Jack doesn't push it.

Instead, he replies, "I know." A combat robot takes a hit and begins to emit sparks on the monitor, and Jack changes the topic to something he thinks is safer. "Where did you go to school?"

Liminal boarding schools are always a potent source for commiseration.

There's a sort of relief in Jack's validation of his answer and even more in the shifting of the subject; Dorin perks up like a sunflower in the returning dawn.

"Shawangunk Ridge Educational Facility," he offers without hesitation, "It's one of the small ones and out in the middle of nowhere, but it's nice. Not far from here." There's an obvious fondness for the place in his voice, as if he were talking about his hometown instead of a boarding school.

"What about you?" It's the obvious but inevitable question and he looks sheepish but genuinely curious when he adds, "You...seem to know a lot of people."

"Oh, a Shawangunk guy." Jack squints, pretending to scrutinize Dorin, but whatever shrewdness can be found in his expression is undercut by the upturned corners of his mouth. "There was a shot putter on your track team—this was probably before your time—who was huge. We all thought that was his Liminal ability, that he could make himself absolutely massive, but I think he was just like that normally."

Jack laughs to himself at the memory of ordinary teenage bitterness. It's not a bad memory—as an adult, he can be grateful for what normalcy was given to him. For school rivalries, for inter-school rumors. For track meets.

"I'm one of those Fighting Johnsons," Jack replies. He assumes a sly look, but this too is just in good fun. The Lyndon B. Johnson Educational Facility has always been one of the bigger Liminal schools, perched at the edge of four major metropolitans with a considerable catchment. "The Johnson Educational Facility," he adds, somewhat sheepishly, in the (likely) case Dorin has no idea what he's talking about. "It was big for an IRIS facility. If it seems like I know a lot of people, it's just a numbers game."

Edited (I'm just spitballin here wrt worldbuilding!!!! Feel free to nix any/all of this!!!!) 2023-05-29 09:06 (UTC)

When it comes to Shawangunk Ridge, there's not much that was before Dorin's time. He'd been sent there not long after the place opened. And, while he'd never participated in athletics or even followed them particularly closely, he does know who Jack is talking about.

"Alec Cadwallader," he supplies helpfully, unfazed by Jack's definitely oh so critical gaze. Everyone had known Alec Cadwallader. The guy had been truly enormous; tall and broad and muscular in a way that was frankly unreasonable, especially for a teenager. But he'd seemed like a good guy too. "You're right, though. That wasn't his ability." He makes a point of not giving up this tidbit of knowledge just yet and raises his eyebrows playfully at Jack. Should he even be sharing such things with an outsider, after all?

The Fighting Johnsons means exactly nothing to Dorin and hints of confusion set into his features at this answer. At least until Jack elaborates and he lets out an awkward little laugh. He gets it. He's pretty sure he gets it. "If you say so," he returns, though he thinks Jack is probably just being humble. "Did you like it?"

Edited 2023-05-29 16:42 (UTC)

Jack does catch the way Dorin withholds any further information about Alec; he laughs again. He’s a little surprised, too—Dorin is so quiet at work, in a way that makes Jack worry that Dorin is unhappy in some way. It’s why Jack brought something back from Albany for Dorin, something small and unassuming just to say, ‘you don’t have to keep to yourself if you don’t want to.’ Only after he dropped the Yakult off did Jack realize he forgot to sign his note—but it wasn’t identifying himself that was the point, just the giving.

Yet maybe he didn’t need to worry at all. Dorin seems just fine talking to him now.

“Um,” Jack wavers, trying to thread the needle between answering Dorin’s question honestly and keeping the conversation light. “It was alright. I was 11 when I started at JEF—I’d just been made team captain of my old middle school’s basketball team. I remember being upset about being taken away from that.” Jack glances down, inspecting a hangnail. There—honest yet light.

Then he does some math in his head. There’s no way Dorin is his age. So if Dorin knew of Big Alec—“You must have been pretty young when you started at Shawangunk, huh?” Jack blurts, startled at his realization.

This answer gives Dorin pause. He can barely remember that time of transition in his own life, so it's difficult for him to fully understand what that must've been like. But he can remember plenty of students that had struggled with leaving people and possessions and parts of themselves behind when they'd started at a Liminal school, so he can understand that much and he finds himself feeling sympathy for the uprooted younger Jack. Hopefully, things had gotten better after that. Though Jack hadn't actually said that, had he?

He's still trying to figure out what to say when the question prompts him back into the conversation.

"Oh. Yeah! I was six," he agrees, seeming a bit startled himself. But only because Jack is. What are they startled about?

Edited (BIG ALEC is so funny to me for no reason.) 2023-05-29 19:17 (UTC)

"Jesus," says Jack, before he can stop himself, "that's young."

He can't imagine what that must have been like for Dorin. Does Dorin remember the house he grew up in? His neighborhood? His parents? Jack's own childhood—before Liminality—had been grounding during his years at school, a reminder that he had been happy once, normal. What did Dorin have to tether him?

Dorin looks a bit taken aback by Jack's surprise; Jack knows this is neither the time nor place to ask Dorin, 'hey, are you okay?' There probably never will be an appropriate time or place for that. Instead, he laughs off his surprise, plays it down. "So you've pretty much been with IRIS your entire life? A company man?"

Dorin doesn't seem to know what to say. He tenses and silently knots his fingers together and only smiles when Jack's attempt to lighten the mood reminds him that he should. "You could say that," he acknowledges before adding quickly, "It was all for the best!" He pushes his smile to broaden, just to ensure the other man catches it, before he allows himself to look away. Back to the monitors. Though it takes him a moment to actually register anything that's happening there.

Then he jolts, immediately brought back from his tangle of thoughts as one of their peers takes a blow from a robot that knocks them clear off their feet. And it doesn't get much better from there. It's a much more pressing matter than the past. He frowns and looks back at Jack. "I think...they might need you in a minute," he says, "Can I do anything to assist?" He isn't like Jack; he can't just heal anytime anywhere with just his will and no supplies. But it only seems right to ask.

Jack winces, understanding he's said the wrong thing. "Listen, Dorin," he starts, "I'm s—"

But before he can finish that thought, duty calls.

Following Dorin's gaze to the monitor, Jack catches the tail end of the blow. He inhales sharply through his teeth as the combatant rolls away from the robot, clawing at the floor as they go. The view from the monitor is fuzzy, but it looks like they have blood at their temple.

"Yes," he replies, maybe a little more assertive than he means to sound. It's not Dorin—there's just really no point in hedging in these situations. "If they're dazed, I'm going to need your help getting them out of the training room." Going by physicality alone, this is an odd request from Jack, given that he's bigger than Dorin. But, Jack assumes, Dorin's touch won't run the risk of overburdening the injured combatant's already-strained mind. "Can you do that?"

This suddenly serious, suddenly authoritative tone doesn't faze Dorin at all. The doctor telling the nurse what they need in the most direct way possible is just how things work and he understands that. That's how it needs to be. He nods quickly and confirms without missing a beat, "I can do that."

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LEADERSHIP EVALUATION

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)

DURING THE EVALUATIONS: Jack (on call) & Dorin (...not)