COOL STUFF

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Phaidra

Phaidra Deanne Johnson was born on the 5th of September, the third of five children born to Terea Eileen O'Shannon and Lester James Johnson. She's 26 years old, 5'2", and 115 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes. Her older siblings are Alistair James ("A.J.") and Morgaine Elise. She also has two younger siblings, Abercrombie William ("Crumb") Coale and Rhiannon Shae ("Rhee") Coale.

When Phaidra was twelve, Lester deserted the family. Teresa married Harvey Coale a year later and decided to change Abercrombie and Rhiannon's last names to Coale. The others were old enough to refuse.

Phaidra left home two months before her eighteenth birthday and fell in with a crowd of car thieves and petty criminals. At the age of nineteen, she began a relationship with Todd, a troubleshooter. Phaidra took to troubleshooting as if she'd been born to it.

Wolf

Wolf is a friend, roommate, fellow troubleshooter, and ex-lover of Phaidra's who specializes in demolitions. Born May 30, he's 29 years old, 6'0", 180 lbs., and has brown hair and gray eyes. He has a laser tattoo of a wolf howling at the moon on his right temple. Most people who meet him for the first time assume he's an accountant or attorney.

He and Phaidra met two years ago when they were hired by the same client. They worked well together, and their sexual attraction was obvious, but they didn't see each other again for six months. Soon after, they began a passionate but short-lived relationship. Phaidra's feelings for Wolf frightened her, and she drew away from him.

Troubleshooters

Troubleshooters are mercenaries. They mostly work within what is generally still known as the United States, though some travel to international locations. They take on a variety of jobs: from bodyguard work, to object or information retrieval, sabotage, espionage, and assassination.

The World

As governments became more corrupt and ineffectual and corporations grew in power and wealth, people started to look to their employers for help. The corporations responded, creating police forces and private militaries. They began to handle problems--such as rival corporations--on their own, often with violence. Local governments grew powerless to stop them, since many of these companies' military forces were better equipped and trained.

The final nail in the coffin of government came about when O'Brien Telecom, the largest telecommunication firm in the country, and Digital State Defense, the largest defense contractor in the world, separately threatened to shut down the global telecommunications network and disable the primary missile defense shield if the three branches of the federal government were not eliminated. Because of the decades of incompetency, the government was unable to respond to the threats.

Before long, the companies were dictating where their employees lived, what they could buy, and even with whom they could associate. It's a semi-feudal society, but most people would rather endure the limitations that come from living under corporate rule in exchange for the perception of protection the companies offer.