@Shoryu Magami

Ah, I get ya.

Yes, stockpiling. I have a shit joke for every character in the RP as of now; I'm just slowly turning them into meme pictures. And then I'm just going beyond to make more bad Final Fantasy puns... And just general jokes that will display my terrible humor.

@Raddum

Lol, that'll be interesting to see then. Looking forward to it. Although, the additional characters I'm bringing wouldn't have been factored in yet, and likely couldn't even once you saw CSs.

Speaking of which, I really am considering posting up one of those CSs now, just to let your mind contemplate what the fuck's coming.

@Raddum

I decided to say 'screw it'. The CS has now been added, alongside a whole new category. Entirely your call if you read prior to my next post. Spoilers are, for the most part, extremely limited unless you think too heavily into it.

@Shoryu Magami

Damnation.

I can assume what will be happening, but I'm excited for your next post, nonetheless.

@Raddum

Good to know.

I figured I should mentioned as well - just for the record, in case there's uncertainty - that these 'Hell Knights' will more or less follow Marche's orders too, just because he's more or less a proxy of Mateus at this point. There'll be more of them, but I won't reveal them until they do something.

@Shoryu Magami

This is actually more effective than one might assume; Considering Marche had spent time leading his own clan of individuals back in Dream Ivalice, this won't be completely out-of-place and odd for him to be at least able to aim the Hell Knights in the tactically correct direction during a fight. It'd be especially good to have them as back-up if he ends up searching for the Warriors of Light on his own; Which, considering some of the groups, would make him an easy target.

@Raddum

That makes sense.

I'm actually planning for one of them to accompany him most of the time, at least. I even had that one worked out, but thought it might be better to wait until I knew which party Marche's gonna target.

With this all said, I've been contemplating contingency plans for when I inevitably have too many CSs for that single post to hold. I might need to just cut those in the 'Others' category to bare bones (name, picture, notes, et cetera).

@Shoryu Magami

Difficult to say who he'd end up going for.

It's less who he's going for, and more who he fortunately, or unfortunately, runs into. The Mist Cave trio is the most secure at the moment, with an experienced Galuf and Kain, as well as Firion. While the WoB group is currently not even together, so sicking someone on them this early might be a bit of a bad idea. Freya and Cecil are both much more skilled than he is, as well. But number-wise, they'd be his most fair bet. Especially if he only had one Hell Knight for support.

The way I see it, for the most part, the beginning won't have the big bads engaging directly. So it's mostly up to The Goons to do the dirty work.

@Raddum

Here's my thoughts:

You're right about the WoB group, though arguably it does make sense that the villains would attack them in their current disorganized state, so it's more a matter of whether or not someone decides to.

The reason I say 'decides to' is because I would imagine some of the more powerful villains can both teleport and are also aware of where the protagonists/antagonists are right now. I don't mind spoiling that Mateus, for example, is fully aware of what most people're up to, but you're also right about the bigger villains not taking action first because he doesn't actually want to directly move in yet. If you recall in Firion's first post, I implied someone was 'watching' him. I don't think I need to explain further.

There's multiple reasons for why Mateus isn't directly going to move forward, and plans to work through 'pawns', but some of it includes feigning how powerful he actually is in order to keep Chaos distracted. There's a few other reasons too, and I will say that he won't pursue Firion directly unless he has to because he considers Firion the greatest threat to him. Not only is Firion far more powerful than he seems (due to being from the same universe as this Mateus, which has been explained in the CS, though Firion currently has lost a lot of his power and memories due to Mateus messing with everything), and also because Firion is the piece of the puzzle who could reveal certain truths about him.

So Mateus' biggest priority is to eliminate Firion, but he won't do it directly if he can avoid it. I'm inclined to say that he'd have introduced the Hell Knights to Marche and explained that they'll be his subordinates, and I'm also thinking he'd probably give Marche command over more than one of them if Marche requested it or if Mateus deemed the strategy he has in mind making it appropriate. If Mateus happens to be the only villain who knows where everyone is, he'll probably keep it secret so as not to give the other villains too much information, and try to manipulate the board subtly.

With regards to the Hell Knights, if you actually want to have access to controlling any of their actions (since Marche can control them), I'll say now that if they have any sort of personality they more or less don't show it at all. Though it's one of the few things I hadn't settled on, there's a good chance they don't speak either. That said, each of them has a specific fighting style and I might need to spoil certain things about them for you to be able to know how to write their fighting styles, so it's sort of your call with this.

Yeah, I get ya, I get ya. WoB group is actually very open to being slaughtered at the moment; It'd make sense to attack them, yet, I just feel like they ought to have enough time in the IC to at least not have Ritz attempting to kill Layle because she assumes he's a giant being an attention whore.

I'm certain a few villains can, to some extent, find the Warriors of Light without much hassle. Considering that the WoB group is almost entirely magic-based, it'd be safe to assume Kefka can pick up on them with ease; Though he probably has no idea of where Freya or Kain would be, as good examples.

It might make sense for Mateus to send Marche and some of his Hell Knights towards the Mist Cave Trio then; Or, to make sure he ends up succeeding, to one of the other groups first to get a grasp on his increased power before going after the main objective. If the fight coming up for Freya and Cecil was against a Hell Knight or two and Marche, he'd probably be able to escape alive; Cecil would probably attempt to spare him, considering he's a child. That'd allow him to be pulled back instead of being eliminated.

Same for the WoB group, honestly. Ritz wouldn't try to out-right kill him; Actually, being a child is probably going to keep him at least somewhat safe from being killed the first time he encounters any of the groups; If he's not simply yanked out by Mateus anyways. So he pretty much gets a free pass, in a sense. Except he's probably not going to tolerate failure from himself, which will get him desperate. And cost him more of his soul to Mateus, because of it.

As for the Hell Knights themselves? I think they work best as seemingly emotionless husks; They simply, for the most part, obey; Perhaps they have their own emotions, but just can't, or won't, express them. Not speaking is another good option; Just pushes the fact they are meant for war, and nothing else. This will also disturb Marche a bit, since he's used to having chummy comrades; It might push his mentality towards Mateus and the others slightly more into the dark.

@Raddum

About to head up the road for food, but figured I'd reply once more.

I'm inclined to say that we can go under the assumption that Cecil and Freya are somewhat ahead of time compared to the other protagonists, which justifies them getting attacked immediately in my next post. The WoB group are behind the rest of them, as far as I'm concerned. They've barely done anything other than wake up and look around. The Mist Cave trio have had enough time to wander around the cavern and find each other. Basically, even if the villains all attacked the groups at the same time (which isn't likely unless the more powerful villains direct all forces present), they don't have to occur in the same/next post.

Mateus would send Marche against Firion only if he was certain Marche won't reveal that he's present here. He'd like to kill off Firion as quickly and silently as possible, so Firion being in the presence of two other powerful fighters sort of works in the protagonists' favours. I'm thinking we should let IC development and conversation between the villains decide who they go after, apart from the Hell Dragoon that I already introduced being sent after Cecil and Freya (for a very specific reason). I suppose it's your call if Marche would want to particulate in that attack, or go after the WoB group or the Mist Cave trio. I can say now that Cecil being 'incomplete' right now, alongside another reason (something I won't spoil yet), means that Hell Dragoon is actually a match for them; in fact, this one warrior could probably overwhelm them depending on what sort of state Freya is in.

We're in agreement that Marche has an advantage in the sense that they'd be reluctant to kill him, but yeah, defeat will start getting to him. Also, yeah, Mateus can and probably will teleport Marche out of a bad situation.

When I said 'if they have any sort of personality', I meant this as a hypothetical in order to avoid spoilers. Since you've spoken about it, I'll confirm to you that they are emotionless husks for the most part. Saying anything more than this might reveal more than you'd like to know, but most of my comments in the last post involving this were about whether or not you'd want to control them at all in your IC posts. If you do, I'll need to reveal certain things about whichever ones you're controlling.

Yeah, Freya and Cecil are ahead of the others, while the WoB group is lagging behind; This I agree with. It is highly unlikely they could all be attacked at the same time, considering they themselves aren't in the same time.

Maybe it'd be wise for Mateus to not trust Marche with that just yet; As he is a child who he isn't completely familiar with, after all. No need to risk the wrong words slipping until Marche was lacking a bit in the soul department; Enough so that his personality starts to shift somewhat, to where Mateus can put more faith into him rather than risk having him screw something up. I think having Marche partake in the attack against Freya and Cecil would be a good idea; Mateus could grant him his power and send him off to give it a test run without risking his own plans. Marche would consider this a step towards saving his world, so he has plenty of reason to go on the mission. Aside from being a bit confused about her situation, Freya is fully capable and able-bodied for battle at the moment; So perhaps Marche's general experience compared to the adults will balance things out as they can probably outsmart him until he starts improving and straight-up getting stronger; The Hell Dragoon will be the real threat in the battle; After Marche is taken care of, probably in a 1v1 with Cecil while Freya attempts to hold off the Dragoon, they can focus on the Hell Dragoon and finish it off.

Then after the fight is over, there can be a small amount of talk between the two sides of the conflict, before Marche is pulled out for the sake of not revealing anything important, or slightly less harming to Mateus, him getting slain.

In this situation, you should control the Hell Dragoon for the sake of us being balanced out; One hero and one villain each. Though in different situations down the line, for balancing purposes, I may take up one of the Hell Knights depending on who is in control where; For the sake of nobody fighting themselves, or something stupid like that. So for now, no, I won't control the Hell Dragoon; But in the future, I might control one of Mateus' pawns to balance out the combat roles between us as roleplayers.

@Raddum

While it's best for us not to assume too much about how the battle will go until all the cards are out (the spoiler about the Hell Dragoon could make or break this situation, which is why they're being sent out), we're basically in agreement about all of this. It seems like a good idea to send Marche too. Essentially, Mateus is fairly confident that the Hell Dragoon will at the very least mess these two up if not outright kill them under ideal circumstances, so sending Marche out to let him gain experience is a good idea alongside it.

Also, I think that's a good logic to work with in terms of whether or not you control any of Mateus' Hell Knights, yeah. Good call on that.

@Shoryu Magami

You are correct; I shouldn't assume too much. The most I can say is that either one of the Warriors of Cosmos could come out on top against Marche at this stage, mostly due to an experience difference. Marche does hit hard, but lacks a bit of technique compared to his opponents; Freya could really fuck him up since getting close to her is difficult in itself considering her polearms; Cecil will simply have to put his training to use and counter Marche for the most part; As exchanging blows with him isn't a good idea at all.

This isn't to say that Marche can't or more like - won't - land hits. But if Cecil is smart he can come out on top.

Freya and Cecil might need some recovery after this bout is over; But I'm fairly sure they'll come out on top in the end. We'll just have to wait and see, however.

@Raddum

With Cecil, I think the most crucial factor will be whether or not he's willing to optimize both the Paladin and Dark Knight abilities. As it currently stands, apart from memory issues his main problem is that he is reluctant to use the Dark Knight powers because in his mind he's put those days behind him. He'll be a considerably more difficult opponent if he overcomes this, because it'll allow him to use 'EX Mode'.

@Shoryu Magami

I figure that once Marche starts using his powers from Mateus and losing his soul that Cecil could actually help turn him to light in the long-run, due to his experience with darkness himself. (Even though Marche's case is much more severe) And him accepting to use both powers would probably be a part of that; Though if Mateus was to notice Cecil corrupting the mind of his pawn, he'd probably avoid having Marche confront him all-together. But a few encounters just might end up being too many; Though Mateus could probably remedy this by sending Marche after the others, claiming them to be 'practice' to take down a possible rival.

@Raddum

Hmm, yeah, I'm seeing it. Actually, if I recall correctly we had some discussion at one point about Cecil being able to help Marche/Ritz unlock one of their classes, so it does seem like he's more or less being set up as something of a mentor figure to the FFTA duo. As for Mateus, he'll mostly just play adaptive chess shenanigans with whatever happens.

@Shoryu Magami

Yeah, we talked about it a bit. The way I see it, Ritz and Marche can unlock classes from characters they get to know; For Ritz, it's more about befriending, and for Marche, it's more of a kind of respect thing, I suppose. Marche, once Cecil begins to actually talk with him, will over time unlock his paladin class; And possibly, if he actually does change sides, a new EX-MODE based on it. His current EX-MODE could be considered a class obtained from Mateus; Though Marche was forcibly given this power, so it's not the same thing.

The only other Chaos member that Marche will probably gain is Thief from Zidane; Considering they are just two dudes in a hell of a mess. Aside from that, there's not a lot of potential candidates for giving Marche classes past that unless he changes sides; In which I'd say that Kain, Galuf, and perhaps in some odd way Layle could have an effect on him. Granting him Dragoon, Samurai, and some new type of possible class based off of Layle's crystal bearer style.

As for Ritz, she will most likely develop a stronger Magic class due to Terra; And may find herself improving from Layle as well, with other possibilities being limited. Perhaps Firion, in some way. Since she's a bit of a hybrid fighter, she could learn more minor physical combat classes, one of which he might be able to offer.

Perhaps in a moment of pure irony, while Cecil allows for Marche to access Paladin skills, Ritz ends up gaining something more from the Dark Knight spectrum. This is all, as of now, speculation; As I don't know if any bonds will possibly be strong enough to cause these reactions until later on in the story.

@Raddum

Makes sense. If they learn anything from Firion, it'd possibly be connected to his whole 'wielding multiple weapons' gimmick. I mean, technically he has magic and a new 'EX-Mode' too, but his primary base 'class' would be something along the lines of being able to wield multiple melee weapons. Assuming they can't learn that skill (essentially, he can take on multiple melee 'classes' and switch between them virtually on the fly, without needing any sort of 'Job Change' ability like Cecil), he could use his skills in any one weapon to help them develop a 'class' around it. His magic abilities include some fairly powerful spells, but he currently can't use the better ones.

@Shoryu Magami

Yeah; Perhaps they could gain a class based on one of his weapons. Perhaps Ritz unlocks Archer, considering he's the only possible bow-fighter at the moment. And in the same light perhaps Marche gains berserker and axes. Berserker would fit in with Marche's in-your-face style, and Ritz's archer abilities would allow her to hinder enemies as usual, but from a distance.

It works.