The Lieutenant. [Female]
Paradise 『Interactive』
You blinked and stared at the question for a moment, writing down all your particulars. Why did you even stop to think about your gender? Of course you were female! You had the parts (and chest) to prove otherwise; if anybody questions your feminity.
Anna starts to tap her feet and you look up at her. She furrows her eyebrows and gestures for you to hurry up with the forms. As soon as her eyes flickers to her wristwatch, you look down and continue your form filling.
Age. Race. Height. Weight. The basics. Though there were some strange questions...
You skipped those and moved on with the rest of the blanks.
The very moment you tapped the pen to complete your signature, Anna snatches the form from under your hand and curls her upper lip, "Move to the left. Don't hold up the line behind you."
You mirror her expression and she rolls her eyes, then averting her attention to the person behind you. You move over to the next counter; the male in front of you greets you in his most professional sounding voice. Also, with a smile.
His smiling face is rather pleasant to look at, you think, the uniform looks good on him.
"Welcome to ranks, Rookie."
He hands you a small pouch which he took from under the counter, "Here, Paradise Coins."
Your eyes shift to the pouch, then to him; your eyebrow raised.
"Ah!" He starts to panic and gestures wildly with his arms, "This, didn't they write this on the information brochure or something?"
"The news spread around my place through word of mouth." You blink at him. Did you ever get a brochure about recruitment? As far as you remembered, no.
Your brother was a lieutenant though, THE Lieutenant. The only one in Paradise's Army with his own personal squad(s); you weren't sure if he had many, or just a single squad.
But you know for sure that he definitely did NOT tell you about the additional currency.
"You can't buy anything here using normal currency, " He purses his lips and gives you a weak smile, "Weapons and other things licensed for use by Paradise can only be bought with their own currency and every merc. recruit gets four hundred after recruitme-"
A drop of sweat rolls down his forehead and his posture goes rigid.
Did he finally recognize the family resemblance?
"L-lieutenant!" His arm was bent in a formal salute and his gaze was directed behind you.
You turn around, stumbling on your feet and looked up at the face of your older brother.
Ahaha.
Haha.
Ha.
, you were screwed.
Your brother's sharp eyes pierce into your very soul, like a knife sinking it's cutting edge into butter and you feel a small shiver run up your back. It was terrifying enough to make you tremble.
Oh, how you loved dramatizing moments like these with your brother. His glares didn't scare you.
"Yah, did you abandon your parents just to prance around in this blood-stained battlefield of doom and mayhem?!"
His voice did.
You wince, peeling your hands off your ears once he stops shouting. You inwardly gagged at his choice of vocabulary,
"I did it for them, oppa." Your words were blunt and nonchalant, your gaze hard. There was no sign of affection towards your older brother.
You truly believed that this was your calling, your time to contribute to the world, however little your abilities were. You wanted to do your best to protect those precious to you.
His lips curls into an almost snarl and raises his hand to slap you but he decides not to. The fear in your eyes hurt him enough, he didn't need to put physical abuse on his list of worries. A loud exasperated sigh ecapes from his lips as he bent forward, steepling his fingers at the bridge of his nose.
Silence fills the room and time passes by. One minute became two, and it easily became five.
You finally brought yourself to look away from your brother's hunched figure and start to examine his office.
Your brother's office was huge, but plain. White linoleum walls and white carpeting. White furniture. Everything was white. White and sterile, like a doctor's office.
A barely furnished book shelf sits in the corner; it looks rarely used. A wide, plastic desk up front, visible from the doorway, and a large screen behind it, covering the walls. Was it his computer? There are the sofas, where you and him were at, everything else was just empty, white space.
Then the windows, overlooking a large portion of what used to be Seoul. It shocked you, even the buildings back where you lived didn't look so destroyed. You could spot chunks of concrete littered around the buildings at the very edge of your view.
Hell on earth. That's what you thought it looks like. Hell.
Buildings outside Paradise's protection were decimated and fire rose from the debris. Red, hot fire. A tiny dark blob soared in the skyline beyond, and as fast as it appeared, it dissapeared. Was that a demon you saw?
You know why your brother didn't want you here.
You heard your brother call out your name, his voice soft and shaky.
"I need you to do something for me."
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