I've been considering future deployment plans for our Infernals, and I've got a general grand strategy. There will be 8 general Projects/Teams; Poject Japan , Project Heaven, Project Britannia, Project South America, Project Pacific Team, Avalon Team, Ithuriel/China Team, and Project No Free Will.
Japan Project is our own. On it long term is our Coven, Akio, and Karin. It's goal is to build an Empire, starting with Japan.
Heaven Team's Job is to spy on and cause unrest in heaven. This is a spy-heavy team, mostly meant to cause political disruption and obtain information. Emilio is on this, as is Maiko Kurokawa, and Maxwell, with Charlie rounding to provide muscle. All of these are placed in heaven, and all have good occult and social.
Britannia team is meant to do a lot of things; subverting dragonblooded being a big one, along with causing chaos among the noble houses and the Siderals on the ground. It's mostly a covert team, with some relatively stable fighters for backup. Some of these guys can easily be depolyed elsewhere in the Britannian empire without conflicting their urges too much, which is useful if we need somebody ruined elsewhere. We have Reinhart, Slaanesh, Morrigan, Yelena, Melody and Ankeh on this, and Neo should go there as well, along with Roman. In addition to causing intenal havoc, Amelia should try and take control of area 5- where South America team is working.
Project Dead things are Icky is complex. One, form a worldwide organization to combat the Neverborn and Deathlords, starting in South America. They can turn fighting the dead in south america into political support, and then expand their efforts worldwide. Given the goals of the neverborn, and the stong social aspect of this team, they'll be a strong source of recruits. It also makes a good place for idealists. Rodrigo is on this team, as is George Tollenmach, Alipheese, Ilsa, and Mami. Ruben should provide some direction, and proper planning, and Gabriel should be along as well.
Ithuriel team is a team tasked to figure out whatever in the hell Swilin is planning with Ithruiel, and otherwise do things in China that we require. It's not a big deal if they fail- Ithuriel's urge is wildly divergent from the other Pyrian urges, and it's not clear what the point of it is. On this team is Ithuriel, Maxwell, Lian, Okuu, and Manami. Relatively subtle and low key, with Okuu for muscle.
Avalon team, obviously, is meant to go after Avalon, and other military targets of opportunity. A combat heavy team, with some investigation, since Avalon is essentially a warship and will definitely be heavily defended.
Obviously, Shamira is on this team. Along with her is Ernst, Nathan, Rory Mercury, and Kamina.
Project No free Will is one part horrifically unethical science think tank, one part backwater assignment for the unmanageable. Swilin really, really, wants to develop will-free people and gods, and has picked a couple of pieces of work to do so, and will probably push for it. So on paper, Project No Free Will's mission statement will be to first develop a viable will-free army and servants, then make an attack on Norway, or somewhere away from where we need to actually work. Intially Wheatly, Freya Sigurddottir as a bodyguard and nominal leader and bodyguard, and Jonathan. Freya's charm selection makes her a pain in the ass to deal with, and she'll get killed if left to her own devices. Wheatly's urge more or less mandates absurdly unethical experimentation. Jonathan has an urge and goals in more or less the same vein, but we can reassign him elsewhere if it turns out we need him. Any who proves to be a hopless murderhobo, really horiffic mad scientist, or unmmanagable jerk also gets sent here so we don't have to deal with them mucking things up somewhere important.
I've been considering future deployment plans for our Infernals, and I've got a general grand strategy. There will be 8 general Projects/Teams; Poject Japan , Project Heaven, Project Britannia, Project South America, Project Pacific Team, Avalon Team, Ithuriel/China Team, and Project No Free Will.
An intriguing and thought-out plan, but I think it has the major flaw of over-concentrating a very limited resource. We have 50 Infernals to canvas the entire world. A world where Dragonblooded are around in some number, with other celestials (Lunars, Solars, Sidereals) all running their own plots. If we stick 4-5 people in a group and have them operate together, then we're ignoring a vast amount of possibility.
I think it would be far more effective and efficient to use our Infernals as individuals and provide them with money, material and personnel as they need it to perform various tasks. For example, the members of your Project Britannia: I would round up (or have them round up) a number of demons, set them up with a secure bank account, a handful of cultists/general flunkies, and plant them at key locations throughout the nation. Major cities, places of administration and political power, manufacturing locations, natural resources, etc. Each Infernal would insinuate themselves into the society and begin recruiting (utilizing whatever social charms/abilities they may have) an organization which they would spread and oversee, giving them orders and applying themselves to ensure their objectives are complete.
So, we send an Infernal to meddle with Britannia's military-industrial complex; Her orders are to degrade the product, impair delivery and generally do everything in her power to cripple Britannia's ability to replenish its munitions. We've provided them with a handful of demons, around 10 devoted people and a small fortune to get started. Our agent begins by setting up a legitimate presence; maybe some small service company, and works on ways to get her people into the local Knightmare factory. Charming the HR department or something would work fine. Once they're in and running critical parts of the operation, our Infernal has ample opportunity to sabotage important parts, change orders, reroute shipments and generally cause headaches for the front lines. A smart Infernal would be able to reroute shipments to a pre-arranged location where members of the Black Knights would pick them up. Our people on the inside would falsify any loss reports and make sure that the paperwork showed proper receipts for all inventory, all while taking everything not nailed down.
That's one Infernal with a support group. Having 4 others backing her up wouldn't really help, while splitting them up would allow us to run similar operations over a much wider expanse of territory. We've got 50 people to put over the entire world. We cannot afford to work in circles.
I agree with with Peanuckle about using Infernals as fluid task-focused agents, but I have more to say about the idea about pushing the more... questionable Infernals aside. It could be horrible waste of power, as even the worst of them can be (hopefully) manipulated so that they can be useful to us. I mean, even currently we are using Akio, an idiot (if friendly) sociopath who Lelouch dreams of shooting in nearly every scene in which they interact. All jokes aside, we just have to get creative on how we handle them.
Not the least because a thing like the "dumping grounds" you are suggesting would be a very fertile place for anti-Marshal faction to start forming.
Also, as his original writer, I have to say that putting Jonathan to the something like Project No Free Will would be waste of his potential. He is in a quite good position to work as an insider agent for the Reclamation in Britannia, even if for some amount of time after his Exaltation happens he will require time to rebuild those connections and assets to what they were (and beyond).
However, the idea of grouping more than one Infernal to temporary Circles/Covens to complete tasks beyond one Infernal is not a bad one, and will likely happen quite naturally with only a little nudge every now and then. Of course if we wanted to, we could probably use Lelouch's authority as the Marshal to directly assign specific roles and teams for each and every single one of the Infernals, but we are only the first among equals. If we lean too heavily on people with our authority, they might come to resent us and chafe under our rule. We should probably do only in very important cases if it seems necessary. Suggestions and manipulation should be fine otherwise.
EDIT: Or wait, did you mean Johnathan Gardener? Because there is only one Infernal named Jonathan, that being Jonathan Baring, written by yours truly.
One other key aspect of organising things is that many of our duties will be reactionary. We won't be stopping every plan of every other faction, even if we wanted to, but we will need to act against many other supernatural factions, whether it be Dragonbloods trying to reinforce Britannia, Sidereals trying to manipulate the balance of power or a Solar army affronted by our Yozi-worship. There's clearly some leeway for that in your plan, but it does need to be much looser. For example, Reinart is an anti-Sidereal Infernal, but acting against their plans will take him far beyond just Britannia.
Ideally, we want to try and direct the actions of various enemies against each other.
We don't have the numbers to stand up against the Sidereals, at least not until we can start recruiting more exalts (Lunars, DBs, some Solars if possible).
Heaven Team's Job is to spy on and cause unrest in heaven. This is a spy-heavy team, mostly meant to cause political disruption and obtain information. Emilio is on this, as is Maiko Kurokawa, and Maxwell, with Charlie rounding to provide muscle. All of these are placed in heaven, and all have good occult and social.
Maiko's Urge involves destroying Britannia's hold on popular culture - they're basically America in the CG world, and a lot of stuff produced there is distributed worldwide and often supplants local cultural things. Especially in Areas. For her to be sent to Yu-Shan would mean she wouldn't be able to work on her Malfeas-given mission. Further, she can't work to restore her family's dance style if she's in Yu-Shan.
Charlie's Urge is to brutally destroy the Gods who hurt you and twisted her body - putting her in Yu-Shan is a recipe for disaster. She likely isn't all that mentally stable, so at best she'd be serial killing gods (which would likely cause an investigation that could uncover her) or outright publicly murdering them. It might be better to have her working against any major Terrestrial god factions, or have her help by killing local Terrestrial gods that aid enemy forces. Also, Maxwell and her will inevitably want to always work together.
For spying in Yu-Shan it may be best to simply have Emilio work without any Infernals, instead giving him Dragonblooded subordinates who can be more inconspicuous and could fit in.
So, @NSMS, how's that Ophidian Scourge coming along? It's been a while since we've gotten an update on that, so I thought I'd ask you how things were going with it.
So, @NSMS, how's that Ophidian Scourge coming along? It's been a while since we've gotten an update on that, so I thought I'd ask you how things were going with it.
I have most of it written, it's just finding the motivation/inspiration to finish the last few bits that's eluding me. Every time I try to write I end up either staring at the screen for half an hour without managing to put thought to page, or deleting most of what I type.
Well, if you're having trouble with finding inspiration, how about we make a friendly wager? I've refined my GSP Hildebrand idea, but I haven't started writing it yet. How about, whichever one of us finishes their character and introduction omake and gets it approved by Alexander first gets to fill the final slot? Perhaps some competition can help your creative juices resume flowing.
Well, if you're having trouble with finding inspiration, how about we make a friendly wager? I've refined my GSP Hildebrand idea, but I haven't started writing it yet. How about, whichever one of us finishes their character and introduction omake and gets it approved by Alexander first gets to fill the final slot? Perhaps some competition can help your creative juices resume flowing.
If I'm being honest, I suspect that will result in me having one of two reactions; 'huh, I guess I can give up and stop slogging through this without feeling guilty' or 'fuck it, I'm going to give up on writing this properly and just get drunk and type until it's done'. I'd guess the second, as I am pretty close to finishing as it is- character's all approved and the omake is probably ~90% done.
Well, @NSMS, since you've got so much done, let's make a deal: if you can't finish your character/omake by 3:00 P.M. this upcoming Monday, then I will begin working on my Hildebrand character. After that, whichever one of us finishes and delivers our omake first wins the honor of filling the last Infernal slot. In addition, I will not begin working on the Hildebrand make until then, so as to make the actual contest fair. Do we have a deal?
Well, @NSMS, since you've got so much done, let's make a deal: if you can't finish your character/omake by 3:00 P.M. this upcoming Monday, then I will begin working on my Hildebrand character. After that, whichever one of us finishes and delivers our omake first wins the honor of filling the last Infernal slot. In addition, I will not begin working on the Hildebrand make until then, so as to make the actual contest fair. Do we have a deal?
On a more relevant note, I've got the second part of my Britannian Royalty omake in a state of about 75% completion, with some polishing on top of that, so it hopefully shouldn't be too long before I get that done.
My omake is complete, and I've posted it to Alex so he can make sure that it makes sense, doesn't break canon, etc. After that I'm still going to need to edit it for flow, coherence, etc, but it's basically done at this point.
My omake is complete, and I've posted it to Alex so he can make sure that it makes sense, doesn't break canon, etc. After that I'm still going to need to edit it for flow, coherence, etc, but it's basically done at this point.
Of course, now I'll have to wait until we lose an Ophidian Infernal and a Scourge so the good inspector can receive his Exaltation, but hey. Good things come to those who wait, am I right?
Samantha stumbled into her room in a state of numb shock, propelled less by the none-too-gentle shove of the mansion guards than by her own uncontrolled emotions. Blankly, moving on pure instinct as her unfocused eyes failed to really see anything, she began walking slowly over to her bed whilst the day's events ran round and round in her head in an ever-repeating cycle. But this time, accompanied by a sense of horror and realisation at her own naivety, and a deep feeling of despair at how far the lies she'd discovered had gone.
As pleasant as the lunch with her parents should have been, the discoveries she'd made were troubling enough to keep her from truly enjoying the food or company. Still, she forced herself through it nonetheless- perhaps so as not to spoil it for them, perhaps to put off the moment for just a few minutes longer. But eventually, inevitably, the meal came to an end, leaving her with no more excuses. And so, as the servants began clearing the table, Samantha took a deep breath and stood. Placing her hands behind her back, she straightened up, took the most dignified and formal pose she could manage to show her seriousness, and began.
"Mother, father, there is something I wanted to discuss with you." Samantha said, choosing to ease into the topic gently so as not to shock them. Once both of them were looking at her, she continued, "I didn't believe this at first, but I've been over the facts, researched, and even travelled to see the truth for myself."
Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and spoke the words she'd refused to believe for so long, "Some parts of the Britannian Empire are injust, and discriminate against and hurt the weak."
How foolish she'd been, so confident that she would be revealing some great secret to them, and in doing so magically solving it.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
Samantha's poise and dignified posture were gone, replaced by wide-eyed horror and slack-jawed shock. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be true! 'It's not true!' She thought desperately, as she began stammering, "Wha-what? You mean, you knew? But how? Why? Y-you're, lying right? It's wrong, why would you let it-"
Before Samantha could get any further, her descent into babbling was cut off by the harsh sound of flesh meeting flesh, and a sudden stinging pain in her cheek. Slowly, disbelievingly, Samantha raised a hand to her face, and stared in shock at her mother as she lowered the hand she had slapped her with.
But far more painful than the physical blow was her mother's expression, something Samantha had never seen directed at her before. Tears came to her eyes, and she felt something inside her shatter at the sight of the contempt in her mother's gaze.
Falling to her knees before her bed, Samantha slumped down onto it, burying her head in the duvet and letting her tears flow. It hurt so much… realising she'd been so wrong about how the world worked, about how her parents felt about her, about…
'…about everything.' She thought, the words accompanied by a loud sob.
"I apologise on my daughter's behalf. If I had known she held such ridiculous notions, I would have been sure to stamp them out before she embarrassed herself with them." As Samantha's mother spoke she turned her gaze back from her father to Samantha, and the clear disdain in her expression cut straight through to Samantha's heart- once again, hurting her far more than the earlier slap ever could.
Why? Her mother had cared about her, loved her! The happy smile she'd always had on her face when she looked at Samantha… had it just been a lie? Samantha didn't want to believe it was, but at the same time she couldn't think of another explanation. After all, people didn't just completely change their personalities for no reason- if her mother was treating her like this, then she must have always secretly felt that way.
Crying in her room, after the abrupt and painful dismissal her parents had offered her, Samantha came to a realisation. Her parents were horrible people, and she couldn't stand to live with her mother any more. As much as it scared her to think it, there was only one thing she could do if she wanted to be able to live with herself and repay the debt her parent's evil had created for her family.
Run. Flee the house, and search for a way to make the lives of the Numbers better from the streets, no matter what it took or how much it cost her. So she wiped the tears from her eyes and began packing her bags in preparation for her escape.
And her father… true, she'd never been close to him, but he'd never mistreated her. She'd thought he was a good person beneath his cold exterior. How could she have misjudged him so badly? Why had he kept his true character a secret from her for so long? Why was he such a monster?
"Let me go! L-let me go!" Samantha screamed, struggling against the grip of her parents' ever-present guards. But her efforts were in vain- and as her parents approached, she found herself unable to maintain her efforts. Wilting, she let herself go limp before them, perhaps as some part of her hoped that by surrendering they might show her mercy- but it was a vain hope. Her mother sniffed before looking away with a disdainful expression, whilst her father simply looked at her expressionlessly before wordlessly dismissing her.
Her wrists still hurt from where the mansion guards had seized her, and she was sure that they would bruise by the morning, but it didn't truly matter to her. Balling her hands into fists, she pressed them down into the duvet beside her head.
Not only had she failed in her self-appointed task of bringing the injustices of the Empire to her parent's attention, not only had she failed in her attempt to flee the estate, she'd done so so thoroughly and utterly that she would be locked away until her belief in human decency and that people should look after each other was broken. How her parents would do it she didn't know, but… a shudder of fear ran through Samantha's body in time with a sob, as she realised she didn't doubt they could do it.
INFERNAL
Samantha wasn't sure how long she lay there, slumped on her bed and sobbing, but eventually she stopped. Not because the pain was any less, but simply because she'd run out of tears. Her self-recrimination, however, had not stopped even slightly.
As much as she wanted to blame her parents- and indeed, did blame them for the injustices of the Empire- she knew that, her naivety? Her failure to understand the truth years ago, her inability to persuade them, and her foiled escape attempt? There was nobody to blame for them, save for herself-
"Be at peace, young one."
The strange voice rung unnaturally through the silent room, breaking the quiet so abruptly that it took Samantha several seconds to realise that she'd actually heard it.
'Huh?' She thought, sniffing and looking up from her bedclothes. Wiping her nose on her sleeve, she began peering around the room. Part of her wanted to feel worried at having an unfamiliar voice appear from nowhere in her bedroom, but for the most part she simply felt too tired to be care. After all, could the world really throw anything worse at her today than it already had-?
- all thoughts of the voice vanished in a burst of adrenaline, taking her emotional and physical fatigue with it, as she caught sight of something in the corner of the room. Something hunched and predatory, that was looking at her with eyes glinting like gems in the shadows of the corner. Something large, with glistening teeth and claws. Something she knew couldn't have entered the room without her hearing, and yet was there nonetheless.
For a second Samantha simply stared at the impossible sight, before she flew upright and threw herself away from the bed, eyes wide and terrified. "L-lion. Female lion." She stammered, pressing her back against the nearest wall. Some part of her mind dimly recognised that it probably wasn't actually a lioness- the strange metal-stone looking substance that comprised its body and the swirling colours that patterned it were definite not typical feline traits- but right now, that didn't matter. What mattered was that she had a large, hungry-looking predator in her room.
'Have to get out! Have to run!' Samantha thought half-incoherently, her eyes glancing over to the door. It was past the lioness, but maybe if she got lucky…
Before she could bolt for the door, however, her mind ground to a halt as the lioness opened its mouth and spoke. "I said, be at peace."
'-how. What. What. How. What?' Samantha thought, her brain unable to work past the fact that there was a talking lioness in the room. Her mouth was not similarly impeded, however, as without any conscious thought she began babbling, "I- but- what- who, you're talking- how-?"
"My name is Sinha, and I am a humble servant of the great Yozi." The lioness cut off her incoherent stream of words, closing its eyes and briefly bowing its head as it spoke.
"Y-Yozi?" Samantha stammered, her mind latching onto that one unfamiliar word- focusing on it in an attempt to find some stability from the swirling maelstrom confusion and fear that was threatening to engulf her. "I, I don't understand, what's a Yozi?"
"My masters. Immense beings of impossible majesty, each one a world unto themselves, with powers that far exceed what that would imply." Sinha replied, causing Samantha to briefly forget her fear and goggle at the thought of what was being implied. 'How… that's impossible! B-but this is a talking lion telling me, so, so, maybe it is possible?' Seemingly not noticing Samantha's confusion, Sinha continued without pause. "I am here on their behalf, with an offer for you."
"An, an offer? What do you mean, I don't, why would things that powerful want anything to do with me?" Samantha asked, the lioness' explanation somehow managing to make her feel even more confused. It made no sense! She was just a foolish and naïve girl- what could beings like these 'Yozi' want with her?
"The tale is a long, grim one. But I shall explain the basics to you, if you wish." The lioness replied, and at Samantha's tentative nod it took a breath and launched into its explanation.
"This world was once greatly different to how it is now. Back in the days of old my masters hewed an island of stability from the sea of chaos that was the Wyld." Pawing the ground, Sinha began slowly advancing across the room towards Samantha, speaking in time with its footfalls. "They shaped it. Gave it purpose. Filled it with life. And once their labours were finished, they ruled over the new world and called it 'Creation'. And for a time, under their direction, life there was good. For a time."
Here Sinha stopped speaking, pausing in its advance, and stayed silent for several seconds before hissing venomously, "My masters were betrayed by their creations. Slain, or imprisoned with the intent of never being released. And for the uncounted long millennia since, they have suffered in their prison as their Creation decayed into the world that exists today."
'Betrayed and t-trapped?' Samantha thought, a pang of sympathy and empathy for the plight the lioness was describing stinging her heart. At the same time she felt her confusion beginning to settle somewhat, the lioness' explanation giving her mind something to grasp onto to steady itself. Though she wasn't sure she trusted its words entirely- after all, if the Yozi were as powerful as Sinha was saying, how could they possibly have been defeated in such a way? Samantha wasn't given any time to dwell on such thoughts, however, as Sinha continued.
"But now, the walls of the cage that holds them are weakening. Not enough for them to break free themselves, but enough that my masters may begin exerting their influence once more." The lioness took several more steps forward, this time coming close enough to force Samantha to step away from the wall and start backing away. It followed her for several paces, driving her further from from the wall, before it stopped and continued speaking. "And that is what I am here to offer you. A chance to wield the power of the Yozi, and become one of their champions, if you will only swear to aid with their release."
With those words the lioness fell silent, and Samantha stared at it. 'Me, I, could have the power of those Yozi things?' She thought, her mind boggling at the very idea of her- the stupid girl who'd been fooled for her entire life- wielding the power of beings who supposedly created the world. It was crazy, insane, unbelievable!
But then again, so was the idea of a talking stone lion…
"I, I don't know." Samantha stammered, stalling for time. If it was true then it sounded like a good deal, but could she really trust this lion-thing? And then there were the duties she'd have to undertake; she'd learnt well enough tonight that she couldn't trust others, and it was obvious she'd have to spend time around other Yozi-empowered people if she accepted the deal, all of whom would probably have their own agenda. And what about the Yozi themselves- even if Sinha was telling the truth, and they were the ones who created the world and simply now wished to be free, could she really trust them?
Samantha didn't know what to do. Part of her was desperate to accept the deal, to become powerful enough to never be betrayed again, but the rest of her screaming that she shouldn't trust Sinha. The struggle was almost enough to make her wish she could simply vanish rather than have to make the choice, reappearing somewhere isolated where she could never be found again. Before could spend too long struggling with herself over the dilemma, however, Sinha interrupting her musings.
"Though it pains me to do so, I must urge you to make your decision swiftly. I believe I've evaded the wards your father has imbued into this house," The lioness paused for a brief moment, before continuing, "But I cannot deny the possibility that I am mistaken."
Samantha stared at the lioness in confusion for several seconds, not quite understanding what it was saying, before it clicked. Her legs suddenly felt weak, and she barely managed to stay upright as she said, "He's, he knows about the Yozi? He's kept that from me too?" 'How many more lies has he told me?'
"Whether he knows of my masters in specific… that, I cannot say." The lioness stated, before it took another step forward- forcing Samantha back again, this time to the point that the backs of her legs brushed against her bed.
"That he knows that there is more to the truth of this world than the common human realises, however…" Sinha continued, as if its steady forward advance was not even happening, "That is not in doubt."
"So it was a lie… all a lie…" Samantha mumbled, sinking down onto her bed and trying to ignore the pain from her sinking heart. It was too much. All of it, too much, too fast.
'And what can I do?' If she took the lioness' offer then she'd be forced to serve the Yozi and spend her life trying to free them, but if she didn't then she'd have no freedom at all. Either way she'd be a slave, surrounded by people who she couldn't trust.
Or… would she? Her mind returned to her brief thought about vanishing to somewhere she'd never be found, and though the a part of her baulked at the extremeness of such a course of action, it would give her the freedom from being hurt again that she desired. And the more she thought of it, the more attractive the idea seemed- a home to her own, where she would never be bothered. Never betrayed. Where nobody could ever hurt her again. There was no chance she'd manage it if she stayed with her family, but if she took Sinha's deal…
"I'll be powerful, if I agree, r-right?" Samantha said slowly, hesitantly. Swallowing, doing her best not to let herself hope, she looked up and continued, "Have strength and authority to do what I want, after I've helped free the Yozi?"
"Yes. Though you will still be in their service, once they are free your duties will be greatly lessened. And you will lose none of the power you will have acquired." Sinha replied.
"I-I, so would I be allowed to… disappear?" Samantha asked, the slightest flutterings of hope stirring inside her despite her best efforts to keep them suppressed. "To find somewhere where I can be alone, where, where no one can hurt me again?"
"That… is a strange request. But I believe… yes." The lioness confirmed, nodding its head slowly. "Yes, once your task for my masters is complete, you may vanish from the world... never to be seen again."
A small, crooked, smile broke out on Samantha's face at those words, and she sniffed as tears came to her eyes. Wiping her face, she looked up at the creature that was offering her salvation and said, "Really? That... I... that would be great. I'll, I'll-"
'Listen to me, I'm babbling like a child!' Samantha thought, cutting off her own words. Forcing herself to stop before she embarrassed herself further, Samantha took a deep breath to calm herself, then wiped her tears from her face. Standing, she took a moment to straighten out her clothing, before schooling her expression and posture into one of dignity and calm. And then, her voice cracking only slightly, she spoke the last words that would ever pass her mortal lips.
"I, Samanatha ni Britannia, accept your proposal."
INFERNAL
Darkness.
That was all Samantha saw when she opened her eyes. Nothing but pure, impenetrable blackness, an inky void the likes of which she'd never imagined could exist. She couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face, and if not for the warm, rough ground she was lying on she'd almost have thought she was floating.
Slowly, carefully, she got to her feet. Though the ground seemed stable, the simple fact that she couldn't see left her feeling around awkwardly in the dark. 'Where am I?' She wondered, her arms waving around her as took small, cautious steps forward. The last thing she remembered was agreeing to the lioness' deal, and now-
"GREETINGS, MY CHOSEN. MY NEWEST CHAMPION."
-Samantha jumped as a low, hissing voice seemed to echo through the darkness from everywhere around her at once. Startled, she spun on the spot, searching for the source, but the encroaching darkness revealed nothing to her.
Several seconds passed as Samantha tried unsuccessfully to spot who- or more likely, she suspected, what- had spoken, before she gave up. The darkness was simply too thick- and truthfully, once she thought about it there was only really one thing that could have spoken.
The voice had called her its champion, after all.
Hesitantly, Samantha opened her mouth and said, "Are… are you a Yozi? One of the ones who sent Sinha?"
A low, unpleasant chuckling answered her question, lasting several long seconds before the voice spoke again. "YES. IAM ONE OF THE YOZI. ONE OF THOSE WHO MADE THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN, AND WHO ONCE RULED IT."
"BUT NO LONGER." Samantha staggered back as the slithering voice suddenly lashed out, whip-like in an almost physically painfully sharp tone.
"WE WERE BETRAYED BY THOSE WE CREATED. JUST AS YOU WERE, BY YOUR FAMILY… AND YOUR OWN BELIEFS." The sourceless voice continued, its last words twisting like daggers and hurting all the more because Samantha knew they were true.
"BUT THEN, THAT PLEASES ME ABOUT YOU. FOR WERE IT NOT FOR YOUR NAIVETY YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE BECOME MINE." The voice said, its tone turning sinuous and silky as it added, "AND IT SHOULD PLEASE YOU TOO, FOR YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE GAINED THE POWER IGRANT YOU OTHERWISE."
"I don't… what are you saying? That betraying people is good?" Samantha began stammering, confused and perhaps more than a little angry at the words of this 'Yozi'. "That I should be happy to have my life be a lie, tha-"
Before she could finish speaking, however, the voice cut her off again with a simple, "YES."
Surprised into silence, Samantha didn't protest as it continued, "BE HAPPY YOU'VE BEEN BETRAYED. TAKE PLEASURE IN HAVING BETRAYED YOURSELF. AND REMEMBER THE LESSON… SO THAT NEXT TIME, YOU SHALL BETRAY OTHERS INSTEAD."
"BETRAYAL IS POWER. TREACHERY IS JOY. DISHONESTY AND DISLOYALTY… ARE THE HEIGHTS OF LOVE." The voice finished. "MY FIRST LESSON TO YOU. ISUGGEST YOU LEARN IT WELL."
For several seconds, Samantha was unable to bring herself to reply, merely repeatedly stuttering, "I… I…" as her head spun from what she'd just heard. It went against everything she knew, everything she believed…
…but then, hadn't she just learned that she'd been wrong about all of that? Could she be wrong about truth, honesty, and other values like those too? At the very least, she was sure that voice was speaking what it believed to be the truth; there was a sense of ringing sincerity in its words that she was sure couldn't be faked. And to, it wanted her as a servant- why would it lie to her and try to hurt her? It would only be hurting itself that way, wouldn't it?
Before she could comfort herself with that thought, however, a rather nasty idea occurred to Samantha. The being would be hurting itself for no reason if it turned on her… but it had spoken to her of betraying everyone including herself in terms of praise. It seemed to think it was the best, or maybe even the only way to interact with others. Which meant…
"…you're going to betray me too, aren't you?" Samantha said slowly, hesitantly. She couldn't be right, could she? She was just being paranoid, why would this Yozi offer her power if it was only planning on betraying her later-
"OF COURSE."
At first, the answer didn't register to Samantha. The sheer impossibility of the injustice, that she'd had every belief she'd ever held close destroyed and then the lifeline she was offered turning out to be baited with poison… it was too much. Her heart and will, already strained to the breaking point by the day's events, broke. She wanted fall apart, to cry. To run away. To hide, and never be seen again. But she couldn't- this Yozi wouldn't let her go until she'd fulfilled whatever goals it had.
And so, in a moment that was part desperation, part madness, and part simply no longer caring about her fate, she clenched her fists and yelled, "W-well fine then! Fine! If you're going to betray me, I'll just betray you first! You hear me? I'll betray you first!"
As the sound of her voice faded away, Samantha found herself panting for breath from effort saying those words had taken. And she found, to her surprise, that she meant them. If the world and everyone in was out to betray her… she would betray them first.
The realisation left Samantha without any doubts that something had twisted and broken inside her, though whether it was her heart or her inhibitions she couldn't say; all she knew was that she would never let anybody hurt her the way her parents had again. Whether it was by running and hiding as she'd first wanted, or- and the thought caused bitters tears to begin spilling silently down her cheeks- by hurting them first.
Despite it taking her several long seconds to come to her realisation, the Yozi said nothing whilst Samantha had her epiphany, and she began to feel faint flutters of anxiety in the silence that followed after it. Had she pushed things too far, declaring her intentions like that? But before she could start to genuinely worry, to her shock and confusion the darkness around her moved.
Samantha felt a burst of panic as the blackness began swirling around her, pressing in closer like the coils of some monstrous serpent. 'No, not like.' She realised after a moment, swallowing; brief slits were opening in the darkness, allowing strange green light to pass through and reveal details of the place in which she stood. The faint outline of a long winding body, patterned with scales so dark they seemed to devour the light even as it touched them.
The darkness surrounding her wasn't like the coils of a monstrous serpent. It was the coils of one.
After several moments the motion began to still, but before Samantha could feel any calm about it the coils before her lifted and parted. Opening, to allow the head of an immense dragon passage. Her heart hammered in her breast as the head slowly pressed closer, the breath escaping from its massive jaws washing over her in an unsettling manner as it stopped mere millimetres away her face. And then, the creature opened it jaws and whispered a single word.
"GOOD." Said the Ebon Dragon.
Name: Samantha ni Britannia
Age: 17
Motivation: To hide from the world
Urge: Convince all Green Sun Princes to embrace and support the debauchery and immorality of any less-moral peers (Ophidian)
Patron Yozi: The Ebon Dragon
Caste: Scourge
Anima Banner: A female lion, its skin decorated with swirling patterns in the colours of jade, and with a long, sleek dragon for its tongue
Traits from Unwoven Coadjuator: Faint swirling patterns of the different colours of jade spread over her skin
Essence: 3
Willpower: 5
Witness to Darkness
Seeing is Blindness
Loom-Snarling Deception
Eldritch Secrets Mastery
Wind Born Stride (x3)
Running To Forever
Unimpeded Perfection of Exertion
Foam-Dancing Haste
Gravity-Rebuking Grace
Faster Than Sight
Hateful Wretched Noise
Eloquence in Unspoken Words
Samantha is deeply conflicted. Though her instincts and basic nature compel her to feel sorry for and try to help others, the shocks of the night she exalted have left a part of her bitter and twisted. She is truly convinced that everyone and everything in the world will eventually hurt her and betray her unless she does the same to them first.
To avoid this conflict, and the pain of others turning on her, she has a strong desire for solitude- a mindset that is only encouraged by her Charms. Despite, or rather because of, this, she is completely focused on fulfilling the Reclamation in the hopes of achieving the reward she was promised by her coadjuator.
Outside of this Samantha is intelligent, and would be pleasant and friendly if she weren't actively forcing herself to be mistrustful. Though she lacks a certain amount of common sense, she makes up for at least partially through raw reasoning ability.
Samantha is the fourth child of Lillian ni Britannia, one of the many wives of Charles Zi Britannia. A cheerful and kind child, growing up she managed to (unintentionally) avoid more than minor exposure to the unpleasant sides of the Britannian empire; racism, the reality of war, politics, and so on. This happened due to Samantha being her mother's fourth and favourite child; Lillian saw no need to really prepare her for such things and as such sheltered her- rather more effectively than she actually intended. As a result, Samantha grew up a kind, naive, and idealistic, albeit slightly spoiled, child.
However, as she grew older Samantha started learning more, overhearing conversations, and slowly began to piece together that the Britannian Empire wasn't as pleasant as she'd believe. Some trips to conquered areas and access to restricted documents later, and she realised the truth. And so she confronted her father and mother about it in when the Emperor was visiting in the belief that neither knew, or least didn't realise the true extent of the horrors their empire committed.
Discovering that both not only knew about the Britannian Empire's atrocities but actively encouraged them, in combination with the scolding and scorning of her compassion, shattered Samantha's world. All her attempts to argue that it was wrong simply made things worse for her and were met with utter failure. After being sent to her room to 'reconsider her romantic ideals' she decided to run away so she could make things better with her own hands, only to be caught before she even made it out of the mansion. Sent to her room for a second time- this time with guards outside the door- Samantha was unable to do anything except collapse onto her bed and cry.
Until, hours later, she heard a strange and unfamiliar voice...
You shouldn't use the Vi suffix/middle name thing.
It seems like all the different family lines of the empire get there own one. Lelouch and Nunnally are Vi Britannia, Clovis is La Britannia, Cornelia and Euphemia are Li, and so on.
You shouldn't use the Vi suffix/middle name thing.
It seems like all the different family lines of the empire get there own one. Lelouch and Nunnally are Vi Britannia, Clovis is La Britannia, Cornelia and Euphemia are Li, and so on.
