NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
That sounds more like something Akio would do, rather than Akito.
...why did I give him such an easily confused name, again?
Green Sun, Black Shadows (CG/Exalted)
- Thread starter Alexander89
- Start date
- Crossover
...why did I give him such an easily confused name, again?
That sounds more like something Akio would do, rather than Akito.
...why did I give him such an easily confused name, again?
Need I remind you that when going to pick up Yelena Akito put on a lightshow and did a bunch of impossible acrobatics because he was bored.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
I was under the impression he was at least still capable of grasping the concept of 'this is probably not a good idea'.
There's a difference between grasping the concept and caring about it.
- Location
- his hidden lair
I'm having a hard time quantifying what I'm arguing, but I guess the best way to say this is- I don't want her to have loyalty to Lelouch, I want her to have loyalty to Zero and the BK. And those aren't the same things, Zero can be an infallible orator who always knows what to do and how to win- even Exalted Lelouch can't claim the same.
I want her convinced beyond all shadow of a doubt that she should follow Zero to the gates of hell and beyond- because that's where we're going. The issues with the loyalty of the Black Knights in canon wasn't solely because Ohgi's a jackass and Lelouch lied to them, it was because Lelouch wasn't Zero, he had his own petty motivations and his own foibles and it completely killed the nigh mythological presence that drew the Black Knights to him. Lelouch has his moments of weakness, of doubt and loss- Zero neither has those or can afford those.
I'm afraid that if we reveal things to Kallen and connect the dots for her- she'll eventually realize what Lelouch is. Not some all-conquering hero Fate has decided to bring salvation to Japan and the world- but a vengeful boy who has nothing left to lose but his sister, and is so caught up on his failure and hatred for Brittania that he will happily unleash hell-on-Earth if that's what it takes to defeat it. We need Kallen to buy into this non-existent myth of Zero as this Ally of Justice who will right all the wrongs- because if we don't, then she might just get to see Lelouch Lamperouge, the man who will burn the world in chaos and nuclear hatefire to get at his father.
I want Kallen to be utterly confident in the righteousness of her actions as she helps lay siege to the Heavens themselves to tear the corrupt gods off of their thrones with no fear of failure because Zero is there leading them, and when has Zero ever truly been wrong? There might have been setbacks, mistakes, but overall his vision has always led them to greatness. And that unwavering devotion to a non-existent myth is impossible if we ground it in reality to the all-too-human Lelouch.
Zero can be made nigh-perfect. Lelouch can't.
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Crow
Falling is a Pleasure. Regardless of its Fate
Sooo you want zealots.
And I think that's the absolute worst way we can go. I don't care so much if our general troops are fanatically loyal, but the people close to us need to be loyal but still need to see us as human enough to criticize our actions. Our advisors can't be sycophants and fanatics. Kallen has a high chance of Exalting, what with being a named character and being rather awesome as a mere mortal. Either Solar or Lunar. Even without that, Kallen will be one of our close confidants.
Further, the only way I think you could get what you're aiming for here is to just never reveal what's behind the mask. The moment Zero has a human face he becomes human.
It is well known that Oramus' stache is superior.
I'd rather not.
Better to keep him off balance with what's happening already.
Really looking forward to the consequences of a speech with 17 freaking successes. Also does anyone remember any plans we had from before the hiatus, I don't remember what we were doing.
JadeKaiser
Uninspired Custom Title
- Location
- Under Your Bed
Isn't that what Lelouch tried to do in canon? And we all know how well that turned out.
Even if it isn't(my canon-fu is weak with Code Geass), that is exactly how to get her to turn on us eventually. Because sooner or later, she will find out who we are behind the mask. And if she has become fanatical towards the mask and finds someone fallible underneath it, which you say outright that you expect to happen, then she will turn against us just as violently as any other disillusioned fanatic would. It will be worse than the Black Knights in canon, because it will be backed not only by feelings of betrayal, but also by feelings of hate.
We've already got a number of things already in training, though if there's something that we want to add to the list we can. The only thing I can think we might want to add is the Charm to make our own first circle devas, though speaking of that we seem to have two days until Fourth Soul Devil Domain shenanigans.
I was thinking about the things in training, shouldn't we pay the rest of the needed xp off for at least the ones just about to finish before the training time ends. That's 23 Xp that's down for training but not actually paid for. Isn't a training debt a bad thing.
Dexterity 4 (10 days left) (7 Xp not yet paid)
Intelligence (7 XP not yet paid, 24 days left)
Fourth-Soul Devil Domain (9 XP not yet paid, 2 days left)
- Location
- his hidden lair
In a word? Yes. I want people who if they do figure out we're currently trying to free a Raging Inferno of Nuclear Hatefire that wishes to subjugate every single being in existence , will against all reason, stand by us.
Then you have to come up with a legitimate way to sell Kallen on waging war against the Gods of Creation with the poor bloody mortals stuck on the battlefield. Because the moment our judgement is consider compromised, the moment when our actions come into question, how can we legitimately defend them? You say you want people who will legitimately criticize us and see us as a fallible human being? Who would stand by the person who genuinely looks like they're trying to end civilization as we know it and usher in a new age of oppression? We're the Commander in Chief of Hell, we're going to have awful publicity in that regard, and we need to take steps to either distance ourselves from Hell, or find people so loyal they won't care about the morality of our actions.
If we do want to be honest to Kallen- than we need a more coherent idea of our goals and what lengths we're willing to go to to achieve them. And even more than that, we need to start gathering and consolidating a powerbase around Lelouch himself. We've layed the groundworks for our own organization with the BK but the BKs are loyal to Zero and that has issues of it's own we can't easily resolve, and we already have a few Infernals we can trust to be loyal to us personally, but a lot of our loyalty and powerbase is currently tied to the authority granted to us as the Marshal of the Althing Infernal- and that's a relatively tenuous authority.
It's what he failed to do. This isn't some issue you can just sidestep by being honest and straightforward, especially since Lelouch is neither of those things. There's no way to simply blow this off and say 'look how well that turned out'. If we do get revealed, our actions are intrinsically going to be called into question, as is our judgement.
Except this is where being an Exalt and master of mind-whamming people comes into play. It is entirely feasible to claim the pretense of being a larger than life figure with inarguable judgement if we lay the groundwork as Zero- if we unveil ourselves in such a way as to compound the mystique and power of Zero. Oh no! They outed us as Lelouch vi Britannia! A mortal purporting himself to be something more! Crimson King Shintai doesn't give a fuck. 5 dots in appearance says otherwise when someone says we're merely human. Our deeds and actions can still live up to Zero's legacy. But that requires ensuring fertile soil, and that Lelouch is powerful enough at the time of reveal to afford to discard subtlety to an extent.
Being outed means we just need to be powerful enough and have a loyal enough following to confront the world directly and live. So like no biggie for a 5 essence Exalt.
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- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
I actually agree with @Karugus here - we're trying to sell people on joining up with a guy whose own bosses refer to him as a "Fiend", and his bosses are traumatized eldritch abominations that want to rule the world forever because they built it. His allies include a Kimberian fanatic, a cannibalistic Chinese woman, a Cecelynian priestess whose already started spreading the locust-flavored love, and out-and-out supervillains. Unless you have an idea on how to convince the Unquestionables that we should wipe out about a third of the Althing and just keep re-rolling until we get a group who meet with our petty, insignificant, flimsy "morality", we're going to have to play the hand we're dealt, Ruvik and all.
Further, the Yozis don't do "let's sit down and have some enlightened conversation", they do various flavors of "shut up and dance, you pathetic monkey man", and the Yozis are where all our Charms come from. Worse, it's where all our subordinates' Charms come from. You think Ruvik and his fellow SWLIHN-channeling surgeon are going to step back on the flesh puppets just because some Britannian shitling told them to? You think some of our fellow Infernals aren't just going to spike the Black Knight canteen with magic locusts and be done with it, if they decide that's what needs to happen for the mortals to stay with the program?
Infernals are Primordials in miniature, and the Primordials were not beings of democracy and openhearted fairness.
Further, the Yozis don't do "let's sit down and have some enlightened conversation", they do various flavors of "shut up and dance, you pathetic monkey man", and the Yozis are where all our Charms come from. Worse, it's where all our subordinates' Charms come from. You think Ruvik and his fellow SWLIHN-channeling surgeon are going to step back on the flesh puppets just because some Britannian shitling told them to? You think some of our fellow Infernals aren't just going to spike the Black Knight canteen with magic locusts and be done with it, if they decide that's what needs to happen for the mortals to stay with the program?
Infernals are Primordials in miniature, and the Primordials were not beings of democracy and openhearted fairness.
I mean, honestly, why not?
We have the magic for it, and getting someone zealously dedicated towards our goals is a pretty sweet deal.
Crow
Falling is a Pleasure. Regardless of its Fate
Cuz the pure use of zealots is flawed and honestly most of the time those things go really really wrong.
I mean letting the common rabble be zealots for the idea of Zero is useful but having some lieutenants that can actually think for themselves and question different angles-keep us from complete hubris one can say. Would be useful.
Just saying that it can blow up spectacularly in our faces as these things tend to do and dont think its quite the right approach in this particular circumstance for this particular character.
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
Half the point of playing an Infernal is forcing yourself NOT to drink the cool-aid, lest you find your search for power has left you so inhuman that you end up making the same mistakes the Yozi did.
JadeKaiser
Uninspired Custom Title
- Location
- Under Your Bed
Being outed means we just need to be powerful enough and have a loyal enough following to confront the world directly and live. So like no biggie for a 5 essence Exalt.
EDIT: Turns out this was wrong.
I more or less agree with you for our general underlings. Heck, fanatics are a MASSIVE bonus for an exalt of any type in sufficient numbers, because Cult rating. By all means, let us get ourselves some fanatics. However, Kallen in particular is probably going to figure out our identity on her own at this rate much too soon for us to get her to that point.
You seem to be assuming that we are going to be telling her about the whole "literally an agent of Hell" thing. We have been quite clear that we AREN'T going to tell her that right now. That would be stupid. Particularly since, unlike the link between Lelouch and Zero, she has no reason whatsoever to expect anything of that nature. Instead, we are telling her that we are Zero and that we have other secrets we cannot share yet.
This will give her a sense that we trust HER, thus making her more likely to trust US, where keeping it secret until she found out on her own would have the opposite effect. It also gives her the impression that becoming closer to us will lead to even more trust for her on our part. As she becomes closer to us, she will also become more attached to us on a personal level.
The time may well come when she is willing to literally follow us into Hell to kiss the hand of Satan, because people can and will go to great lengths for people they feel close to. This only becomes more and more true when you factor in the fact that we can lead her down the slippery slope and the cost-sunk fallacy as it relates to interpersonal relationships. It isn't something we would want to do with the Black Knights as a whole, but Kallen is easily a valuable enough person to invest in her personally. Especially since she is almost certain to exalt eventually as something or other, and we want her to be personally invested in us when that happens.
There's also the fact that we are developing a soul hierarchy. If that ever got out and forced us to separate from the Yozi, we wouldn't be able to keep the Black Knights or our public mask as Zero. There are far too many other loyalist Infernals involved with them, and we WOULD be forced to let one of the others take our place as Zero if we had to flee, because we simply don't have the sort of personal influence over them to force them to stay with us. We told them that anyone could be Zero, after all. If that happens, we want as many people to be loyal to us as Lelouch as we can get. And yes, Kallen is worth the effort to make her one of those people.
EDIT: Forgot to actually vote.
[X] Plan Blame Milly and Big Reveal
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Do you have a source for this? Because to the best of my knowledge Infernals have the same minimum age limits for Essence as other Exalts (IE: only E6 and up require centuries). I think you might be getting confused with the fact Infernals have a maximum age limit where if they don't level up their Essence fast enough* they die.
*You must hit E6 before 150, E7 before 300, E8 before 700, and E9 before 1200. After you hit E9 you've got until 2500 to obtain immortality via one of the various Infernal charm paths that provide it, such as going Devil Tiger, or figure out another way of extending your life.
JadeKaiser
Uninspired Custom Title
- Location
- Under Your Bed
I was getting it from my memories of the conversation in the thread for Damned if I Do, over on SB. Having checked again, it looks like I was wrong. Actually, it was your post there that I was misremembering.
Not that that changes anything about the rest of what I said, of course.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
While somewhat amusing, I don't there this would be the best idea. Besides, not much need for when Akito could just go something like: "Yo, have something to tell you, follow me" and march away at which point Kallen would likely follow, because I expect her to want some fricking answers at this point. And my own stunt is (finally!) nearly ready. Just some polishing and typo hunting needed.
I agree on at least waiting and seeing how things go before trying to include Suzaku by ourself.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Sub-Plan of the Big Reveal: The Man Behind the Mask
(Manipulation (Deceiver's Stone) + Presence social attack, base 9 dice pool; (+2 dice from Silver Tongue because of Deceiver's Stone?); Conviction 4 Channel; 1 autosux for 1 wp)
(Second Oramus Excellency (x4) 8 personal motes; rebellion, enigmatic, shatters expecations, seven (participants in the discussion))
(What Is And What Should Never Be (Stunt raised to the max if necessary), Oramus Mythos Exultant (refill WIAWSNB stunt pool), My Dark Lady)
(Total pool of 15 dice and 5 autosux; effective Appearance of 10; 8 motes, 1 wp, 1 Conviction Channel, X amount of WIAWSNB stunt-dice used)
Its finally done! And yes, I needed all the words before the actual stunt to write-it down in a satisfying manner to myself. There might be some errors and typos here and there, but I'm posting it now. Otherwise, I'll just spend the whole day going through the damn thing with a microscope.
*
In a dark room in a sidewing of the Student Council Clubhouse (with potential unwanted interlopers being turned away by Sayako in the corridor leading here), the mask of Lelouch Lamperouge the Apathetic Britannian Student fell from Lelouch own face. A deep breath, and he had donned a mask he found himself far more comfortable with. Though this time, without the protection of the physical one, or even a misleading and disfigured face made out of shadows he had so often hid behind underneath the first for additional deception. Or underneath that the veil of obfuscating magic of Oramus, that was now part of his very nature in hiding his secrets. Because he was going to reveal them by himself. Well, one layer between him and the world would have to do this time.
"Are you sure about this, Boss?"
"Yes. Now, be quiet unless you notice something extremely urgent. The show is about to start." He then snapped open a briefcase with a number-lock, which contained his most important prop.
"...You really like your theatrics, eh, Boss?"
"Shut. Up."
*
Whatever Kallen Kouzuki had been expecting when Sumeragi Kaguya had suddenly showed up on her class as a fricking exchange stundent, along with other members and allies of the rebellion, it hadn't been... Okay, she hadn't been expecting anything, because she was still a little bit off-balance about the whole exchange student thing! And being roped by Milly Ashford to show around the school alongside with her to the head-turningly diverse group, though she would have had tried to to include herself anyway to the tour. First to protect Kaguya-sama's honor, with her own presence hopefully preventing any Britannian casual racist deciding to throwing slurs at Kaguya-sama, and secondly when and if she had the opportunity to ask what the hell was going on! Politely.
"And this here is one of the sidewings!" the perpetually cheerful blonde exclaimed, their tour having taken them finally to the Student Council Clubhouse. "Most of the rooms aren't reserved for anything specific, but are free to be used by Student Council members for any of their needs." She pointed one door to her left. "For example, we use this one mostly for meetings. Which reminds me, is the coast clear?" At that, Kallen froze. She had noticed Hyuga Akito and Leila Malcal discreetly scanning their surroundings, the European soldiers obviously keeping up their guard on enemy territory. But the way that Milly had said that, could she be a-
"Aaand judging by your look", the smirking young woman before her face said, "you probably realize at this point that I'm insider on the whole "Zero's rebellion" -thing. Kallen Kouzuki-chan." Kallen gaped. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. "What. You. But. Why? How?!"
At that point, Leila Malcal sighted and bowed deep in a very japanese manner apologizingly to her. "I am sorry about the lack of proper warning, Kouzuki-san. We received an invitation here from Miss Ashford-" "I told you, just call me Milly!" "...From Miss Milly, and the papertrail we were provided by Sumeragi-dono could be made much more foolproof if we can add some authenticity to it in this manner. And Miss Milly had said she would take care of things on this end." "Which I totally did! Just right now!"
Massaging the bridge of her nose, Kallen could feel a headache coming. And Akito-san was sporting a slight smirk while glancing at her sideways, a one little too similiar to that of Milly's for comfort. Rakshata was leaning at a wall nearby, looking bored. At least Nathan Coulter had thankfully stayed behind, citing something about having to sort out some paperwork with the faculty, so she wasn't feeling like a fool before even more people. And Kaguya-sama was following the proceeding silentely while looking absolutely serene, like things were going exactly as they should be. Suddenly, she broke her silence. "Ah, Kallen-san, sorry about the uninentional cloak and dagger. But the is a reason why we are all gathered here, besides of what Miss Malcal told." With a click that seemed far too loud in a suddenly silent hallway, she opened up the door to the room Milly had previously pointed out. It was pitch black inside.
"Zero-sama has something important he wants to reveal to you."
*
Stunt: "Q-1, what do you think about masks?" Kallen whirled towards the deep and rich voice she instantly recognized coming from the other end of the room. Squinting her eyes in the faint light coming from the doorway, she could just make out the outline of an office chair there at the end of the table with six other chairs on the either side, its back turned to her. Before she could answer, Zero continued. "I myself find them fascinating. When you put one on, you become something else than what you were just a moment ago. Which is only a lie often. But sometimes, they can be used to show the world our true face and let us act on what we believe, while our face underneath it becomes the mask to hide behind."
While Zero's words were still deeply resonating inside her where they had struck, the chair spun around to face her, and she lost her voice the second time on the same day in short succession after the first. Because now that her eyes had adjusted, she could see who was sitting on it, and he was definetly not wearing a mask. "Kallen Kouzuki", said Lelouch Lamperouge, with the mask of Zero which he was staring at with a contemplating look held high in his right hand. "You are not the only one who hides in plain sight. And like you have already seen with some our comrades, not the only Britannian who can't tolerate their own country's beliefs and deeds."
(Manipulation (Deceiver's Stone) + Presence social attack, base 9 dice pool; (+2 dice from Silver Tongue because of Deceiver's Stone?); Conviction 4 Channel; 1 autosux for 1 wp)
(Second Oramus Excellency (x4) 8 personal motes; rebellion, enigmatic, shatters expecations, seven (participants in the discussion))
(What Is And What Should Never Be (Stunt raised to the max if necessary), Oramus Mythos Exultant (refill WIAWSNB stunt pool), My Dark Lady)
(Total pool of 15 dice and 5 autosux; effective Appearance of 10; 8 motes, 1 wp, 1 Conviction Channel, X amount of WIAWSNB stunt-dice used)
Its finally done! And yes, I needed all the words before the actual stunt to write-it down in a satisfying manner to myself. There might be some errors and typos here and there, but I'm posting it now. Otherwise, I'll just spend the whole day going through the damn thing with a microscope.
*
In a dark room in a sidewing of the Student Council Clubhouse (with potential unwanted interlopers being turned away by Sayako in the corridor leading here), the mask of Lelouch Lamperouge the Apathetic Britannian Student fell from Lelouch own face. A deep breath, and he had donned a mask he found himself far more comfortable with. Though this time, without the protection of the physical one, or even a misleading and disfigured face made out of shadows he had so often hid behind underneath the first for additional deception. Or underneath that the veil of obfuscating magic of Oramus, that was now part of his very nature in hiding his secrets. Because he was going to reveal them by himself. Well, one layer between him and the world would have to do this time.
"Are you sure about this, Boss?"
"Yes. Now, be quiet unless you notice something extremely urgent. The show is about to start." He then snapped open a briefcase with a number-lock, which contained his most important prop.
"...You really like your theatrics, eh, Boss?"
"Shut. Up."
*
Whatever Kallen Kouzuki had been expecting when Sumeragi Kaguya had suddenly showed up on her class as a fricking exchange stundent, along with other members and allies of the rebellion, it hadn't been... Okay, she hadn't been expecting anything, because she was still a little bit off-balance about the whole exchange student thing! And being roped by Milly Ashford to show around the school alongside with her to the head-turningly diverse group, though she would have had tried to to include herself anyway to the tour. First to protect Kaguya-sama's honor, with her own presence hopefully preventing any Britannian casual racist deciding to throwing slurs at Kaguya-sama, and secondly when and if she had the opportunity to ask what the hell was going on! Politely.
"And this here is one of the sidewings!" the perpetually cheerful blonde exclaimed, their tour having taken them finally to the Student Council Clubhouse. "Most of the rooms aren't reserved for anything specific, but are free to be used by Student Council members for any of their needs." She pointed one door to her left. "For example, we use this one mostly for meetings. Which reminds me, is the coast clear?" At that, Kallen froze. She had noticed Hyuga Akito and Leila Malcal discreetly scanning their surroundings, the European soldiers obviously keeping up their guard on enemy territory. But the way that Milly had said that, could she be a-
"Aaand judging by your look", the smirking young woman before her face said, "you probably realize at this point that I'm insider on the whole "Zero's rebellion" -thing. Kallen Kouzuki-chan." Kallen gaped. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. "What. You. But. Why? How?!"
At that point, Leila Malcal sighted and bowed deep in a very japanese manner apologizingly to her. "I am sorry about the lack of proper warning, Kouzuki-san. We received an invitation here from Miss Ashford-" "I told you, just call me Milly!" "...From Miss Milly, and the papertrail we were provided by Sumeragi-dono could be made much more foolproof if we can add some authenticity to it in this manner. And Miss Milly had said she would take care of things on this end." "Which I totally did! Just right now!"
Massaging the bridge of her nose, Kallen could feel a headache coming. And Akito-san was sporting a slight smirk while glancing at her sideways, a one little too similiar to that of Milly's for comfort. Rakshata was leaning at a wall nearby, looking bored. At least Nathan Coulter had thankfully stayed behind, citing something about having to sort out some paperwork with the faculty, so she wasn't feeling like a fool before even more people. And Kaguya-sama was following the proceeding silentely while looking absolutely serene, like things were going exactly as they should be. Suddenly, she broke her silence. "Ah, Kallen-san, sorry about the uninentional cloak and dagger. But the is a reason why we are all gathered here, besides of what Miss Malcal told." With a click that seemed far too loud in a suddenly silent hallway, she opened up the door to the room Milly had previously pointed out. It was pitch black inside.
"Zero-sama has something important he wants to reveal to you."
*
Stunt: "Q-1, what do you think about masks?" Kallen whirled towards the deep and rich voice she instantly recognized coming from the other end of the room. Squinting her eyes in the faint light coming from the doorway, she could just make out the outline of an office chair there at the end of the table with six other chairs on the either side, its back turned to her. Before she could answer, Zero continued. "I myself find them fascinating. When you put one on, you become something else than what you were just a moment ago. Which is only a lie often. But sometimes, they can be used to show the world our true face and let us act on what we believe, while our face underneath it becomes the mask to hide behind."
While Zero's words were still deeply resonating inside her where they had struck, the chair spun around to face her, and she lost her voice the second time on the same day in short succession after the first. Because now that her eyes had adjusted, she could see who was sitting on it, and he was definetly not wearing a mask. "Kallen Kouzuki", said Lelouch Lamperouge, with the mask of Zero which he was staring at with a contemplating look held high in his right hand. "You are not the only one who hides in plain sight. And like you have already seen with some our comrades, not the only Britannian who can't tolerate their own country's beliefs and deeds."
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