Amakura Tomoe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
worthathousand) wrote2018-10-31 10:37 am
worthathousand) wrote2018-10-31 10:37 am
Entry tags:
( imeeji ) application
Player name: Degen
Player age: over 18
Method of contact: Menuha#5889 (discord) |![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Degen
Character name: Amakura Tomoe
Character canon: Exalted 3rd Edition; original.
Nb. Exigent exalts like Tomoe are well-established in canon, but mechanics for playing them have yet to be released; as such, Tomoe's abilities are extrapolation based on the information available.
Canon summary:
Millennia ago, the gods wished to overthrow the Primordial architects of Creation—but since they could not directly disobey the Primordials who made them, they gave their power to uplift mortal heroes into semidivine champions: the Exalted. These were lordly-brilliant Solars, wild-wise Lunars, fate-spinning Sidereals, and legions of "Dragon Blooded" soldiers of the elemental dragons. However, the Primordials were part of the very fabric of their Creation. When they were defeated, some surrendered and were hellishly warped while others became undead portals to oblivion who, with their "dying" breaths, cursed the Exalted: their greatest strengths would be their undoing.
Now, in the Age of Sorrows, after the corrupt empire of the Solar exalted was overthrown, replaced by an empire of Dragon Bloods called the Realm, rewritten history portrays all non-Dragon Blooded exalts as demonic "anathema." With anathema constantly hunted as soon as they reincarnate, though, there are often not champions strong enough to protect mortals. For this reason, lesser gods have begun petitioning Sol Invictus, the sun god of the Solars, for the right to create exaltations of their own: the Exigent exalted.
In the city-states of the Hundred Kingdoms, outside the Realm, war is common. Amakura Tomoe lived as minor nobility in Sange Village on the outskirts of a larger domain, and when an outside army threatened her home, Sange was the first to fall. But Tomoe, whose mother had been a weaponsmith, took up a just-completed naginata and her domain lord's banner to fight back. This was the resolve that the local war god, Tamontennō, had been seeking, and he sacrificed his existence to empower her as his champion, one of the Exigent. Tomoe became known as the warrior worth a thousand and the white lily of battle: she could stand toe-to-toe with regiments of mortal soldiers, and her presence seemed to empower the troops around her.
After the war, though, Tomoe laid down her blade, retiring to help rebuild Sange. There, she would marry the noblewoman musician Nakajima Shiho and raise a family of three fierce daughters and one gentle son, Kaede, though she never aged a day past the 20 years old of when Tamontennō chose her. Shiho fell ill and passed a few years after Kaede's birth, but Tomoe's peace was preserved. Two decades later, though, the domain lord died and was replaced by her far crueler daughter. Rebellion began fomenting in the village, and Tomoe and her family did what they could to quietly aid it... until Kaede's husband, Miura Hiroto, a commander under the new lord, discovered the village's—and Kaede's—involvement. It was when Tomoe saw Hiroto carrying the dead body of her son that she snapped. This time, though, Tomoe was fighting a duel, not a war, and could not bring the full might of Tamontennō to bear. Before she could finish Hiroto, Sol Invictus noticed a man fighting an impossible battle for the sake of his lover, and Exalted him as a Solar. And so Hiroto slew her along with her village.
(Those are the broad strokes of the Exalted universe and Tomoe's story. For additional names and details, go here.)
Character in canon: Despite her youthful appearance, Tomoe is no hot-headed young hero; at 54 years old, she has lived a life that has given her ample time to understand the distinctions between who she is and who she wants to be; to negotiate the balance between the world as it is and the world as she would see it become. There is a kind of calmness about her on first impression, but it’s the sort of calm that comes from discipline. And, if she seems gentle and nurturing, those traits coincide with a steel will that is readily apparent to those who get to know her beyond a passing conversation.
Internally, however, Tomoe is much more tumultuous and even aggressive than her outward behavior suggests. There is a part of her that remains the same rebellious young woman who first took up a glaive made by her dead mother to fight against impossible-seeming odds—because she’d rather die fighting than submit to the injustice of a war that thought nothing of slaughtering civilians. Indeed, she thrived in this environment. The pressures of war forced Tomoe to push herself; to rise to impossible-seeming challenges (albeit ones that became far less impossible because of Tamontennō’s gifts). Her fellow soldiers were in many ways a replacement for the family she’d lost in that first attack on Sange, and she found fulfillment in lifting them up to be their best and strongest selves alongside her. Those five years of war that she spent fighting as the Chosen of Tamontennō, Tomoe was in many ways the most natural version of herself, and the atrocities she witnessed only steeled her resolve that what she was doing was necessary and just.
It was the loss of her father—sacrificing himself after many believed the war had been won in order to deliver word of a retaliatory sneak attack—that truly forced the white lily of war to realize that martial strength alone could never stop the cycle of violence. She wasn’t just a warrior but also a commander, and her responsibility was to her people. When she truly stepped back and considered what she knew of war, no amount of reverence for her heroism could convince Tomoe to continue fighting. Instead, she came to devote herself wholly to a different sort of ideal: the most just war that could possibly be waged was one that never needed to be fought at all; the “warrior worth a thousand” would serve the cause of peace.
Almost everything about the person that Tomoe has become is something that she has specifically decided to be. While Tomoe has done a very good job turning her skills as a general towards being a protector and caregiver, this role is still a loving mask over her warlike nature. Although for some characters this kind of performative personality might be an indicator of an unhealthy emotional state, in Tomoe it has more in common with an ascetic’s restraint—a commitment to live in a way that is somewhat unnatural to oneself in order to best enact a philosophy that one believes brings the most good to the world. This was the core meaning of Tomoe’s choice to retire her weapon and become a gentlewoman farmer. It also informs the relationship she developed with the musician Nakajima Shiho: While it is very common in the society of Exalted, especially the Age of Sorrows society that is so informed by the culture of the Realm, for families to create whole bloodlines devoted to martial strength, that wasn’t what Tomoe wanted for her legacy. She wanted music; she wanted gentleness; and she fell in love with the sort of person she in some ways wished she could be. Can someone who excels at war ever truly be an instrument of peace? It is this question, more than any other, that defines Tomoe’s narrative.
Though Tomoe has a great deal of hard-earned wisdom and a mother’s devotion that extends to not just her family but her community, her philosophy is not without its blind spots. She cherishes true peacemakers (like father, and her wife, and her son Kaede) because she is not, at her core, one herself; instead, she is a warbringer who has put the ideal of peace somewhat on a pedestal. It was wrong for her to cherish Kaede more dearly than her other children; more wrong still for her to do so specifically because of what he represented to her—that he was unlike her in personality; that he was her child of peace. She would have done anything for him, but there was a facet of her love that was conditional on him living the kind of life she couldn’t lead herself. This is also why Kaede’s murder made her snap in a way nothing else could: the trouble with investing yourself in symbols to represent your ideals is that it makes your ideals something external to you, and therefore vulnerable.
Ultimately, the hardest thing in Creation for Amakura Tomoe is not violence or bloodshed or even loss of life, but rather hopelessness. She can make all those sacrifices if it’s for the sake of a better world; instead, she died while witnessing the cycle of violence prove to be inevitable, which was the greatest pain of all.
Character in Imeeji: The most notable difference wrought by amnesia on Tomoe will be the stripping away of the tempering context of her experiences of war and years spent raising her family. As discussed, for as much as she values peacemakers, it is not something that comes naturally to her; thus, without her memories, she will lose so much of what convinced her to be devoted to peace in the first place. Tomoe had to learn the cruelties and loss of war, so as an amnesiac she will be much closer to her younger self: inclined to be passionate in her pursuit of justice, her fiery—sometimes even stubborn and outright aggressive—personality brought to the surface. She is a fighter; someone who would rather break her way directly through a wall than go around, simply to prove to herself—and to anyone who dared doubt her—that she could. That said, even amnesia cannot entirely rob Tomoe of the wisdom and stability that comes with her age, so, while Tomoe will certainly assume that she is a quite young woman, she will nevertheless retain the capacity to be a steadying influence on those around her—mother hen instincts, so to speak. Some moms r 4 fite.
For Tomoe in Imeeji, the big question raised is: what does it mean to be a warrior at heart when you don’t have a clearly defined enemy? In fact, Tomoe will likely spend her first month or so in game feeling somewhat unmoored for reasons she can’t entirely pinpoint; she may want to rebel against her situation but not see a clear context to do so. Instead, she is likely to find herself drawn towards supporting those around her (the people who, in another life, would have been her fellow soldiers), taking on their well-being as her personal cause, even as she continues to seek out greater direction in her life. Essentially, Tomoe is someone who always would have felt called to greatness, and her home canon gave her the spark for that kindling in her; in Imeeji, the kindling will remain, ready and waiting.
These traits have clear implications for team dynamics: Tomoe is a natural leader, but her style of leadership is more well… motherly. She is independent enough, herself, to not have much interest in directly ordering others around, but she is nevertheless insightful, encouraging, and a protector, which are traits that will likely incline her toward a “team mom”-esque role. That isn’t to say her patience is infinite; she has no interest in chasing after people who want nothing to do with her. Frankly, she has better things to do than that, after all. Above all, regardless of what Tomoe can offer to a team, what she wants most from a team, even if she will not initially be able to articulate this to herself, is a sense of belonging and a sense of having allies who could almost become family. She wants justice, but her motivation for justice is empty without that justice being in service of people.
As a result, Tomoe will bond most easily with two sorts of people: First, there are those who share her passion, her forthright nature, and that “kindling” of heroism. With these groups—people like Heart Soldier Senshi, and to a lesser extent avante en garde—Tomoe is among kindred spirits and fellow front line fighters. They may not need her protection, but they share her drive to act as protectors, and nevertheless almost certainly benefit from her comparative wisdom and measured responses. Second, there are people for whom protection comes first and foremost. These are nurturers of all kinds, and a team of this kind of people brings Tomoe’s capacity for selfless devotion to the forefront—while, conversely, allowing her to occasionally be the spark that pushes them to direct action. On the other hand, a team of people just passively looking to survive would irritate Tomoe, though she might still rally herself to the cause of building their confidence. Even worse would be a team of determined nihilists, or those who take no interest in questions of morality. Amnesia would not stop Tomoe from being a woman who cares deeply about doing what is right—and doing in a very active way.
Over time, as Tomoe reclaims her memories, the process will resemble the weight of the world settling on her shoulders like a well-worn cloak. Her passions and aggression will be called into question, but so will her actions be given a context and weight that is, to be quite honest, desirable to her. She is always someone who has benefited from a sense of true direction. Of especial note in this process, though, is her bond with her son, Kaede, who became Bride, and now Persephone. It is a strange and unique opportunity to treat her son as a peer rather than the vessel of her hopes and dreams that he became—but will the bond between them truly be restored?
Unit Preferences:
Priority: Heart Soldier Senshi, LiliS, avante en garde
Acceptable: Taisho Roman Revolution, BAD END=DEAD END, pep!pep!, sensitIV, AlcheME, WILD CITY
Do not place: future is now, BARiTONES, ☆ZRAEL
♔ SURVEY (non-amnesiac):
Evaluate yourself honestly: what do you think your soul is worth?
“Well… I suppose it is worth something to someone, isn’t it? I am who I am because I was chosen by a god, and because that god sacrificed his existence for the sake of my being a champion of my people in his stead. Is that the same as being worth more than the soul of any other? I’m truly not sure. I don’t think I would like that to be so. But… if it is, then having a weighty soul is a burden, not a privilege.”
Is there anything you would do anything to achieve?
“You know… there was a time when the answer to that would have been yes.” She sighs, and smiles lightly, her expression thoughtful or perhaps sad. “I know better, now.”
A pause, then she half-winces. “...Perhaps I am being dishonest with myself, even after all these years. I know there is little I wouldn’t do to keep the family that remains to me safe.”
What does hell mean to you?
A frown. “Malfeas, you mean? The kingdom of demons? Or do you mean… something more metaphorical?
“The poets sing that war is hell and glory all at once. But war is neither of those things. It is nothing so grand. War is made up of all the risks and madness we undertake to protect, and to survive.” She shakes her head; her perpetual soft, polite smile turns strained. “No, if it isn’t Malfeas itself, then hell is loss. Emptiness. It is fighting a war and coming home to see what you fought to protect has died anyway.”
Which of these nine words is the most meaningful to you, and why? Idolatry, lies, transgressions, vengeance, sorcery, plague, devastation, inquisition, or temptation?
“Hmm… Let’s see. The Immaculates are always railing against idolatry and false gods, but Tamontennō himself isn’t worthy of worship by their standards, so I think we can pass that one by. Lies… everyone lies. We do it to protect ourselves. I won’t judge others for it. As for the others… I have no strong feelings on sorcery, or inquisition, and plague is certainly terrible but not something that has ever affected me directly, thank the gods. Perhaps for that same reason, vengeance and devastation come closest to speaking to me.” Her smile falls away again. “...Yes, it had better be ‘devastation’ after all, hadn’t it? Devastation is what made me who I am, and I wrought it in turn as the warrior worth a thousand. Now that I think of it, how could it ever be anything else?”
Do you want a puppy?
“Ha! Now there’s a nice change of pace. Honestly, a cat or a plough horse would be of greater use around the farm, but my grandson would be absolutely thrilled by a puppy, so if someone offered me one, I don’t think I could bring myself to say no.”
Have you previously owned a puppy?
“Never, actually. A dog would have gotten underfoot in my mother’s workshop—and there’d have been no place for the mess in the fine halls of my father’s family.” She looks subtly pained at this mention of her parents, but quickly restores her soft smile. “My grandparents did have a hearth cat, though she was already quite old by the time I was old enough to sit still and appreciate her warmth as she curled up in my lap. It is probably for the best that the creature died years before the war.”
Are you worried we've been recording this conversation?
Tomoe’s eyebrows raise. “Isn’t that the entire point? The war against my province and my own exaltation may have spared me the market of arranged marriages, but I’m not so distant from noble society that I don’t know an evaluation when I see one. I hope I have proved sufficiently amusing.”
Do you have any last words for us?
“I don’t know the purpose of this, or if you hope to recruit me for some cause—you wouldn’t be the first, you know, to imagine that you might rally the warrior worth a thousand to your banner—so I will simply tell you what I have told the others: I am not interested.” Still that same serene smile, but the steel in it is more apparent now. This is a smile that hides a blade. “I am a farmer now, no more or less. My nation is Sange, and my family, and none will take them from me.”
Player age: over 18
Method of contact: Menuha#5889 (discord) |
Character name: Amakura Tomoe
Character canon: Exalted 3rd Edition; original.
Nb. Exigent exalts like Tomoe are well-established in canon, but mechanics for playing them have yet to be released; as such, Tomoe's abilities are extrapolation based on the information available.
Canon summary:
Millennia ago, the gods wished to overthrow the Primordial architects of Creation—but since they could not directly disobey the Primordials who made them, they gave their power to uplift mortal heroes into semidivine champions: the Exalted. These were lordly-brilliant Solars, wild-wise Lunars, fate-spinning Sidereals, and legions of "Dragon Blooded" soldiers of the elemental dragons. However, the Primordials were part of the very fabric of their Creation. When they were defeated, some surrendered and were hellishly warped while others became undead portals to oblivion who, with their "dying" breaths, cursed the Exalted: their greatest strengths would be their undoing.
Now, in the Age of Sorrows, after the corrupt empire of the Solar exalted was overthrown, replaced by an empire of Dragon Bloods called the Realm, rewritten history portrays all non-Dragon Blooded exalts as demonic "anathema." With anathema constantly hunted as soon as they reincarnate, though, there are often not champions strong enough to protect mortals. For this reason, lesser gods have begun petitioning Sol Invictus, the sun god of the Solars, for the right to create exaltations of their own: the Exigent exalted.
In the city-states of the Hundred Kingdoms, outside the Realm, war is common. Amakura Tomoe lived as minor nobility in Sange Village on the outskirts of a larger domain, and when an outside army threatened her home, Sange was the first to fall. But Tomoe, whose mother had been a weaponsmith, took up a just-completed naginata and her domain lord's banner to fight back. This was the resolve that the local war god, Tamontennō, had been seeking, and he sacrificed his existence to empower her as his champion, one of the Exigent. Tomoe became known as the warrior worth a thousand and the white lily of battle: she could stand toe-to-toe with regiments of mortal soldiers, and her presence seemed to empower the troops around her.
After the war, though, Tomoe laid down her blade, retiring to help rebuild Sange. There, she would marry the noblewoman musician Nakajima Shiho and raise a family of three fierce daughters and one gentle son, Kaede, though she never aged a day past the 20 years old of when Tamontennō chose her. Shiho fell ill and passed a few years after Kaede's birth, but Tomoe's peace was preserved. Two decades later, though, the domain lord died and was replaced by her far crueler daughter. Rebellion began fomenting in the village, and Tomoe and her family did what they could to quietly aid it... until Kaede's husband, Miura Hiroto, a commander under the new lord, discovered the village's—and Kaede's—involvement. It was when Tomoe saw Hiroto carrying the dead body of her son that she snapped. This time, though, Tomoe was fighting a duel, not a war, and could not bring the full might of Tamontennō to bear. Before she could finish Hiroto, Sol Invictus noticed a man fighting an impossible battle for the sake of his lover, and Exalted him as a Solar. And so Hiroto slew her along with her village.
(Those are the broad strokes of the Exalted universe and Tomoe's story. For additional names and details, go here.)
Character in canon: Despite her youthful appearance, Tomoe is no hot-headed young hero; at 54 years old, she has lived a life that has given her ample time to understand the distinctions between who she is and who she wants to be; to negotiate the balance between the world as it is and the world as she would see it become. There is a kind of calmness about her on first impression, but it’s the sort of calm that comes from discipline. And, if she seems gentle and nurturing, those traits coincide with a steel will that is readily apparent to those who get to know her beyond a passing conversation.
Internally, however, Tomoe is much more tumultuous and even aggressive than her outward behavior suggests. There is a part of her that remains the same rebellious young woman who first took up a glaive made by her dead mother to fight against impossible-seeming odds—because she’d rather die fighting than submit to the injustice of a war that thought nothing of slaughtering civilians. Indeed, she thrived in this environment. The pressures of war forced Tomoe to push herself; to rise to impossible-seeming challenges (albeit ones that became far less impossible because of Tamontennō’s gifts). Her fellow soldiers were in many ways a replacement for the family she’d lost in that first attack on Sange, and she found fulfillment in lifting them up to be their best and strongest selves alongside her. Those five years of war that she spent fighting as the Chosen of Tamontennō, Tomoe was in many ways the most natural version of herself, and the atrocities she witnessed only steeled her resolve that what she was doing was necessary and just.
It was the loss of her father—sacrificing himself after many believed the war had been won in order to deliver word of a retaliatory sneak attack—that truly forced the white lily of war to realize that martial strength alone could never stop the cycle of violence. She wasn’t just a warrior but also a commander, and her responsibility was to her people. When she truly stepped back and considered what she knew of war, no amount of reverence for her heroism could convince Tomoe to continue fighting. Instead, she came to devote herself wholly to a different sort of ideal: the most just war that could possibly be waged was one that never needed to be fought at all; the “warrior worth a thousand” would serve the cause of peace.
Almost everything about the person that Tomoe has become is something that she has specifically decided to be. While Tomoe has done a very good job turning her skills as a general towards being a protector and caregiver, this role is still a loving mask over her warlike nature. Although for some characters this kind of performative personality might be an indicator of an unhealthy emotional state, in Tomoe it has more in common with an ascetic’s restraint—a commitment to live in a way that is somewhat unnatural to oneself in order to best enact a philosophy that one believes brings the most good to the world. This was the core meaning of Tomoe’s choice to retire her weapon and become a gentlewoman farmer. It also informs the relationship she developed with the musician Nakajima Shiho: While it is very common in the society of Exalted, especially the Age of Sorrows society that is so informed by the culture of the Realm, for families to create whole bloodlines devoted to martial strength, that wasn’t what Tomoe wanted for her legacy. She wanted music; she wanted gentleness; and she fell in love with the sort of person she in some ways wished she could be. Can someone who excels at war ever truly be an instrument of peace? It is this question, more than any other, that defines Tomoe’s narrative.
Though Tomoe has a great deal of hard-earned wisdom and a mother’s devotion that extends to not just her family but her community, her philosophy is not without its blind spots. She cherishes true peacemakers (like father, and her wife, and her son Kaede) because she is not, at her core, one herself; instead, she is a warbringer who has put the ideal of peace somewhat on a pedestal. It was wrong for her to cherish Kaede more dearly than her other children; more wrong still for her to do so specifically because of what he represented to her—that he was unlike her in personality; that he was her child of peace. She would have done anything for him, but there was a facet of her love that was conditional on him living the kind of life she couldn’t lead herself. This is also why Kaede’s murder made her snap in a way nothing else could: the trouble with investing yourself in symbols to represent your ideals is that it makes your ideals something external to you, and therefore vulnerable.
Ultimately, the hardest thing in Creation for Amakura Tomoe is not violence or bloodshed or even loss of life, but rather hopelessness. She can make all those sacrifices if it’s for the sake of a better world; instead, she died while witnessing the cycle of violence prove to be inevitable, which was the greatest pain of all.
Character in Imeeji: The most notable difference wrought by amnesia on Tomoe will be the stripping away of the tempering context of her experiences of war and years spent raising her family. As discussed, for as much as she values peacemakers, it is not something that comes naturally to her; thus, without her memories, she will lose so much of what convinced her to be devoted to peace in the first place. Tomoe had to learn the cruelties and loss of war, so as an amnesiac she will be much closer to her younger self: inclined to be passionate in her pursuit of justice, her fiery—sometimes even stubborn and outright aggressive—personality brought to the surface. She is a fighter; someone who would rather break her way directly through a wall than go around, simply to prove to herself—and to anyone who dared doubt her—that she could. That said, even amnesia cannot entirely rob Tomoe of the wisdom and stability that comes with her age, so, while Tomoe will certainly assume that she is a quite young woman, she will nevertheless retain the capacity to be a steadying influence on those around her—mother hen instincts, so to speak. Some moms r 4 fite.
For Tomoe in Imeeji, the big question raised is: what does it mean to be a warrior at heart when you don’t have a clearly defined enemy? In fact, Tomoe will likely spend her first month or so in game feeling somewhat unmoored for reasons she can’t entirely pinpoint; she may want to rebel against her situation but not see a clear context to do so. Instead, she is likely to find herself drawn towards supporting those around her (the people who, in another life, would have been her fellow soldiers), taking on their well-being as her personal cause, even as she continues to seek out greater direction in her life. Essentially, Tomoe is someone who always would have felt called to greatness, and her home canon gave her the spark for that kindling in her; in Imeeji, the kindling will remain, ready and waiting.
These traits have clear implications for team dynamics: Tomoe is a natural leader, but her style of leadership is more well… motherly. She is independent enough, herself, to not have much interest in directly ordering others around, but she is nevertheless insightful, encouraging, and a protector, which are traits that will likely incline her toward a “team mom”-esque role. That isn’t to say her patience is infinite; she has no interest in chasing after people who want nothing to do with her. Frankly, she has better things to do than that, after all. Above all, regardless of what Tomoe can offer to a team, what she wants most from a team, even if she will not initially be able to articulate this to herself, is a sense of belonging and a sense of having allies who could almost become family. She wants justice, but her motivation for justice is empty without that justice being in service of people.
As a result, Tomoe will bond most easily with two sorts of people: First, there are those who share her passion, her forthright nature, and that “kindling” of heroism. With these groups—people like Heart Soldier Senshi, and to a lesser extent avante en garde—Tomoe is among kindred spirits and fellow front line fighters. They may not need her protection, but they share her drive to act as protectors, and nevertheless almost certainly benefit from her comparative wisdom and measured responses. Second, there are people for whom protection comes first and foremost. These are nurturers of all kinds, and a team of this kind of people brings Tomoe’s capacity for selfless devotion to the forefront—while, conversely, allowing her to occasionally be the spark that pushes them to direct action. On the other hand, a team of people just passively looking to survive would irritate Tomoe, though she might still rally herself to the cause of building their confidence. Even worse would be a team of determined nihilists, or those who take no interest in questions of morality. Amnesia would not stop Tomoe from being a woman who cares deeply about doing what is right—and doing in a very active way.
Over time, as Tomoe reclaims her memories, the process will resemble the weight of the world settling on her shoulders like a well-worn cloak. Her passions and aggression will be called into question, but so will her actions be given a context and weight that is, to be quite honest, desirable to her. She is always someone who has benefited from a sense of true direction. Of especial note in this process, though, is her bond with her son, Kaede, who became Bride, and now Persephone. It is a strange and unique opportunity to treat her son as a peer rather than the vessel of her hopes and dreams that he became—but will the bond between them truly be restored?
Unit Preferences:
Priority: Heart Soldier Senshi, LiliS, avante en garde
Acceptable: Taisho Roman Revolution, BAD END=DEAD END, pep!pep!, sensitIV, AlcheME, WILD CITY
Do not place: future is now, BARiTONES, ☆ZRAEL
♔ SURVEY (non-amnesiac):
Evaluate yourself honestly: what do you think your soul is worth?
“Well… I suppose it is worth something to someone, isn’t it? I am who I am because I was chosen by a god, and because that god sacrificed his existence for the sake of my being a champion of my people in his stead. Is that the same as being worth more than the soul of any other? I’m truly not sure. I don’t think I would like that to be so. But… if it is, then having a weighty soul is a burden, not a privilege.”
Is there anything you would do anything to achieve?
“You know… there was a time when the answer to that would have been yes.” She sighs, and smiles lightly, her expression thoughtful or perhaps sad. “I know better, now.”
A pause, then she half-winces. “...Perhaps I am being dishonest with myself, even after all these years. I know there is little I wouldn’t do to keep the family that remains to me safe.”
What does hell mean to you?
A frown. “Malfeas, you mean? The kingdom of demons? Or do you mean… something more metaphorical?
“The poets sing that war is hell and glory all at once. But war is neither of those things. It is nothing so grand. War is made up of all the risks and madness we undertake to protect, and to survive.” She shakes her head; her perpetual soft, polite smile turns strained. “No, if it isn’t Malfeas itself, then hell is loss. Emptiness. It is fighting a war and coming home to see what you fought to protect has died anyway.”
Which of these nine words is the most meaningful to you, and why? Idolatry, lies, transgressions, vengeance, sorcery, plague, devastation, inquisition, or temptation?
“Hmm… Let’s see. The Immaculates are always railing against idolatry and false gods, but Tamontennō himself isn’t worthy of worship by their standards, so I think we can pass that one by. Lies… everyone lies. We do it to protect ourselves. I won’t judge others for it. As for the others… I have no strong feelings on sorcery, or inquisition, and plague is certainly terrible but not something that has ever affected me directly, thank the gods. Perhaps for that same reason, vengeance and devastation come closest to speaking to me.” Her smile falls away again. “...Yes, it had better be ‘devastation’ after all, hadn’t it? Devastation is what made me who I am, and I wrought it in turn as the warrior worth a thousand. Now that I think of it, how could it ever be anything else?”
Do you want a puppy?
“Ha! Now there’s a nice change of pace. Honestly, a cat or a plough horse would be of greater use around the farm, but my grandson would be absolutely thrilled by a puppy, so if someone offered me one, I don’t think I could bring myself to say no.”
Have you previously owned a puppy?
“Never, actually. A dog would have gotten underfoot in my mother’s workshop—and there’d have been no place for the mess in the fine halls of my father’s family.” She looks subtly pained at this mention of her parents, but quickly restores her soft smile. “My grandparents did have a hearth cat, though she was already quite old by the time I was old enough to sit still and appreciate her warmth as she curled up in my lap. It is probably for the best that the creature died years before the war.”
Are you worried we've been recording this conversation?
Tomoe’s eyebrows raise. “Isn’t that the entire point? The war against my province and my own exaltation may have spared me the market of arranged marriages, but I’m not so distant from noble society that I don’t know an evaluation when I see one. I hope I have proved sufficiently amusing.”
Do you have any last words for us?
“I don’t know the purpose of this, or if you hope to recruit me for some cause—you wouldn’t be the first, you know, to imagine that you might rally the warrior worth a thousand to your banner—so I will simply tell you what I have told the others: I am not interested.” Still that same serene smile, but the steel in it is more apparent now. This is a smile that hides a blade. “I am a farmer now, no more or less. My nation is Sange, and my family, and none will take them from me.”