Young Writers Society

It is the year 2013. Nothing like the present, eh?

MarsOne is a Dutch company which is searching for four candidates to send on a no-return trip to Mars, with the intention of forming the first human settlement there. (No kidding — it's real.)

Unaffiliated, it generates most of its funds by internationally broadcasting the selection process, similarly to the Hunger Games. This process includes rigorous physical, intellectual and psychiatric tests intended to isolate the most healthy, compatible and stable individuals for the mission.

After eight years of training (also broadcasted) the top applicants are ready for launch and the top four alone are posted to Mars, where they are tasked with setting up camp and starting research.

Unfortunately, all will not go according to plan. The astronauts will lose contact with the earth, and a second team, made up of the rest of the fully-trained candidates, will be deployed on a reconnaissance and possibly rescue mission.

You are one of the candidates who signed up for the mission. You will become either a member of the first or the second teams.

Basic plot:


Character slots:


Profiles:


Quick rules:


P.S. Feel free to check out the MarsOne website! The details of the SB will be largely similar. (This is absolutely optional, of course )

Here is the DT: We are MarsOne DT

Name: Dylan Schubert
Gender: M
Age: 35 by the end of the training
Team: first
Appearance: Dylan is 6'3" and muscular. He has blue eyes and black hair. His mouth is usually in a jovial smile. He wears jeans, sneakers, a camouflage jacket, and jerseys or plaid shirts.

Psychological weakness: He is terrible at communication, especially when it comes to stuff about himself, like his feelings.

Personality: He's quite intelligent. With his very masculine physique and his rough-and-tumble, confident attitude, a lot of people see him as your stereotypical jock. For the most part, they're right. He enjoys all kinds of sports, especially baseball and soccer. But he has a soft side to him as well. Given the right circumstances, he can be kind, loving, and great with kids. He appreciates art, although other than snapping a few pictures he can't be bothered to make it.

Quick history, skills and qualifications: He has a PhD in mechanical engineering, which was his main qualification for the mission. He had a wife and a kid - seven years old when Dylan last saw him. But that was another life, under another name. He felt that that life wasn't fulfilling enough for him. So he snuck away. He regrets it a lot of the time. His wife loved him and his kid was great, he was smart and loved baseball, just like the old man. But Dylan's off to new adventures on Mars now.

Other:

Awesome! See you

Name: Leon Waters

Gender: Male

Age: 24 ( 32 after training )

Team: First

Appearance: 6"1 tall with a strong athletic build, has a short brown hair and brown eyes. As about the clothes, this pic (Just felt like using his clothes for once ^^)

Psychological weakness: Tends to doubt everybody and make unnecessary back-up plans, or are they really unnecessary?

Personality: Is rather quiet and keeps most of things to himself, possesses calm mind during most circumstances, and is fairly sharp given good intelligence. Prefers to keep his persona secret, but often shares funny stories about his adventurous past. Doesn't hesitate to take solid decisions and act when something's going on. He doesn't mind helping others out with things he's good at, but can't be bothered to do anything else. Has a deep connection to earth.

Quick history, skills and qualifications: Spent most of his life trying out a great variety of things to find what interests him, also learned survival skills and self-defense. Honorably graduated as a best student in geology, and that made him qualified for MarsOne as an expert geologist.

Other: (Up for love etc.) He is, though it might be tricky (or take time I suppose) =)

Great

Can I reserve a spot? This is too cool to pass up.

I'll take team one, but what's the difference?

Can I reserve a spot for the first team please? ^^

Sure thing!

Hey, can I have the last spot on the first team please? I'll have my character's profile done soon.

@JonQuill, you are welcome to a spot, but you will have to battle it out with thewritersdream for first team, who asked first. If she doesn't want it that much, you can get first team.

@thewritersdream, the first team goes on the first mission, which ultimately fails (we'll plot out what goes wrong) and they are stranded without communication to earth. The second team then goes on mission to save them. You and JonQuill both want to be first team, but you have first choice.

Oh, sorry for some reason I thought there were 5 spots available on the first team. It's okay, I'll be on the second team, I don't really care that much, just so long as I can be involved

Awesome! Okay, so the first team is full and we have one second-teamer so far!

Okay, so here's my character's profile. Just tell me if I've gone agaisnt the rules or whatever and it shall be changed

Name: Dorian London

Gender:Male

Age:24 by the end of training.

Team: Second

Appearance: Dorian is of average height, slender and constantly slouches.
He has an effeminate face, with large hazel eyes and black hair that falls just below his chin. He often dresses in a sophisticated manner (blazers, scarves, ties, leather gloves/jackets etc.) perhaps due to his formal education.



Psychological weakness Due to his abusive childhood and the pressure he puts on himself to be successful, Dorian can be desperate and mentally detached from reality. He is very near to the point of psychosis, something that became apparent in the MarsOne tests and can be attributed to the reason that he wasn't picked for the first team. He also has an addictive personality (alcohol, tobacco).

Personality: Dorian hails from the north of England. Creative, an appreciator of beauty and very observant, he is a high achiever who sets unrealistic goals for himself, and others. This causes himself to be overly frustrated with personal failure and even more so with the failures of team mates. He's had to work hard to achieve his current position, and is jealous of those who achieve it easily, or with the aid of money. He treats those he believes are less intelligent or deserving in a condescending manner, at least until they prove themselves. He can often be unpredictable because of his constantly solemn features, making his emotions hard to read. He is also loyal, genuine, and nurturing towards things of beauty (material, musical or even human). Above all else he seeks to learn and better himself, even if this is out of a psychological need to be successful or even different to his abusive parents. He will do anything to get a job done, even if it means sacrificing personal emotions or even morals.


Quick history, skills and qualifications: Dorian has always been a high achiever with a talent for computer science and astronomy. Coming from a poor and abusive family, the only praise he received was from his science and art teacher who initially inspired his interest in space, particularly in extra-terrestrial life and astronomy. Due to his advanced intelligence, and his tendency to use his computer talents to disruptive ends (due to boredom and a way to lash out at bullying class mates), Dorian was thrown from school to school (not knowing what to do with him) until he won a scholarship to a prestigious academy for gifted children in Scotland and fast tracked his way through to Oxford university at the age of eleven. His time at Oxford was short, and he was able to master a degree in computer science and astronomy by the age of 16. His thesis earned the acclaim of scholars and scientists throughout the continent of Europe, which fed his ego considerably.
This acclaim quickly turned to mocking however when Dorian grew over confident of his position and published a book about his findings on aliens and popular hack-theories stating that most of them were true and are, indeed, extensively covered up by the governments of the world. Suddenly unable to find a job and with book sales nearing zero, Dorian desperately searched for a way to win back the admiration of his peers and his own self-respect, this was when he joined MarsOne and trained for 8 years to be a part of the first human colony on Mars. When he didn’t make the original team, due to mental instability, he took a more severe dive and turned to the comfort of substances, such as alcohol and tobacco. This was until he received a call from MarsOne, stating that they needed his help.

Other: Dorian also finds it difficult to accept help and even trust others. Also, open to romance.

Oh, interesting XD

I should be able to do this. . . may I reserve a spot for second team? :3 (Female, most likely X3)

Name: Annabeth (Spring) Lansdorp

Gender: Female

Age: 18 (10 at the beginning)

Team: Second

Appearance:
Younger: She's a tiny slip of a girl; extremely thin and light with half her body weight being her long extremely blond hair that reaches past her butt (yet somehow never gets tangled with all the running she does). Her eyes are an amazing warm blue color and always wide with curiosity and awe. She's about the average height for a ten year old, and quite fragile (although this changes over time.)
Her favorite thing to wear is this little white nightgown that reaches down her calves and will constantly wear it, even if it's the middle of the day. Other than that she likes to wear more loose fitting clothing, or at least something that's easy to move around in.
Older: She still has that extremely blond hair but now keeps it up in a tangled-looking bun like thing in the back of her head. Although she's filled out quite a figure, she's still thin. She's just under average height. Like how she was when she was younger she's more agile than strong, but now has some more muscle on her.
She now mostly wears tank-tops (not showing off anything) and boot-cut jeans (That either reaches her feet or halfway down her calves with white lace decorating the bottom) with either really thin sandals or boots. (Sometimes she can still be seen wearing that nightgown she loves to bed along with shorts.)

Psychological weakness: She's extremely trusting. Even though now a days she's getting a little older and starting to lean what it is to be wary, she's alot more trusting than most. She's definitely not stupid, but she almost never suspects anyone of anything and believes in the best of everyone. Although this is a great strength of hers, it can also lead to be a great weakness as it can lead to her being manipulated, or even lead people to think she’s putting up an act to get what she wants.

Personality: Annabeth is extremely Innocent. That's the word for her. Innocent. As mentioned above, she's extremely trusting and believes in the best of people, almost never thinking bad of anyone unless it's extremely obvious. And sometimes not even then. She definitely would never take advantage of anyone, even if she could/thought to do so.
She's extremely bubbly, always optimistic, fun loving and a little childish. Although sometimes she can be frustrated slightly, you'll never be able to bring her down. She's also extremely energetic and curious. She's always running, skipping, and dancing around, and loves to infect people with the same positivity. She loves making people feel better, almost always finding the perfect way to at least bring a smile to someone's face, if not make them feel amazing.
There are three things she loves above everything else; Nature, People, and Music. She always loved trips to the park when she lived in the orphanage and growing up, and tries to get to any kind of nature whenever she can. And she especially loves music, trying to get any of it she can get a hold of. She believes that both are 'good for the soul' and always tried to cheer people up through either. She will constantly be seen dancing through the hallways with headphones on, eyes closed, listening to some upbeat tune blasting from her little MP3. (Her favorite song is 'St. Elmo's Fire' :3)
Despite her innocent and trusting personality she's a genius. (Especially when it comes to technology.) Although she could have been more of a book genius she's naturally more of a creative one, making up new ways to solve things that no one has thought of before.
Also, she can have a bit of a devious side. In no way manipulating or anything of the such, but she can be a bit of a prankster especially now that she's older. It'd mostly be things like switching out all the music on someone's iPod to one of her playlists (bubbly, energetic and emotional music <u>) or programming their computers to do something silly. (She'd most likely prank people who could use a break or some fun to make them feel better (Sometimes against their will <u>’’)) She'd probably stick around the crime scene, and when she's found out would run away screaming/laughing a hilarious 'WhoopWhoop!' all the way to safety.

Quick history, skills and qualifications: Annabeth was abandoned at an orphanage when she was a baby. Despite never knowing her parents and never living in particularly good conditions (the orphanage was really poor) she always retained her positive and energetic attitude. The woman who ran the orphanage even said she was like a gifted angel. And that she was. In electronics.
Despite her love of nature she's an absolute genius with anything with electricity or gears. She was even able to make a radio out of broken/abandoned machine parts.
One day about when she was 10 she was adopted by the Chief Executive and co-founder of MarsOne, Bas Lansdorp. She left, crying her eyes out, promising that she'd write to them very often and making them promise they'd stay happy.
Although she was extremely hesitant at first, she quickly returned to her extremely energetic and positive attitude and developed a loving father-daughter relationship with her adopted father. Whenever he was down she'd do her best to cheer him up. She never really asked for anything, but the few times she ever did ask for something she got it. (Although she still hasn't recognized the pattern/her power over him <u>')
Eventually he found out her talent/genius (she even made herself a little MP3 player that she still uses to this day and constantly upgrades), and that coupled with how curious she is/her bring homeschooled/how soft he is when it comes to her, she spent a lot of her childhood attending or listening in on many of the training classes, which she picked up on in no time.
She breezed through almost all the training courses she took, and was always willing to help the other initiates study/pass tests or to just feel better, even if they didn't want to. Whenever she was asked how or why she was so good at technology, she'd giggle and say 'The machines talk to me :3' (Whether or not she really thinks this is unknown <u>)
She was never supposed to go into space, nor did she have much interest to, but now they're running out of options. She was confronted by some of the other employees her father work with and they asked her to go, since she was the best they knew in electronics/mechanics. They managed to convince her by saying that if things ended up south then her dad’s work and effort would have been for nothing. Not wanting her father’s dream and hard work to go to waste, she decided against his wishes to go and help in any way she could.

Other: She's Up for Love. Once or twice when she was really really little she bragged to the other initiates/employees that her future husband was going to be handsome and awesome (Little kid stuff, you know? :3) Other than that she never really thought of it, even now that she's older. I have a feeling that she'd be a bit of an airhead and would misinterpret flirting, but would eventually get it (and then flip out <u>). If she ever had a crush on someone, she probably wouldn't know what to do with herself. (She'd blush alot and get nervous, probably not even aware she had a crush on them <u>'')
Although she's never gotten angry I feel she'd be extremely vengeful and dangerous if anyone ever managed to do the impossible <u>'' (it would be incredibly incredibly hard to make her so <u>'')