Stern Algorithm

Mecha Kaiju Mashup

I have an idea that I've been wanting to try that is like a mix of Ultraman, Pacific Rim, and Godzilla, with a layer of Neon Genesis Evangelion's philosophical transhumanism.

In the wake of giant monster attacks and the appearance of an Ultraman-like savior, mankind has developed 4 branches of anti-monster defense. The first relies on the giant savior, the second on controlling and pitting monster against monster, the third on creating giant mecha, and the fourth on utilizing conventional military to provide support to the other three branches. The player characters would be members of one of the three branches, excluding the first branch, and will learn more about the organization in charge and the people in it, the origins of the monsters, and how far humans are willing to go to protect themselves. I would generally like palyers to spread out which branch they would like to be involved with, but this isn't a hard rule. I am also not letting players be part of the first branch, which involves the Ultraman-like savior, as this character would know more spoilery info, but I can relent on this if you convince me otherwise.

If this idea interests you, then below are my RP habits. I tend to be casual to advanced and expect similarly from my players. I am looking for or a small group of players (3-5). For this idea, I will basically be GMing and playing the NPCs. Given that this is a group RP, I expect each player to have a single character, but I may allow you to play multiple characters. I am slow at posting and can take weeks to respond depending on how busy I am. I intend to RP through a forum thread. I can open up a Discord server for OOC and collaboration if requested.

Yeah, that should be it ask if you have any questions.

Mecha Kaiju Mashup

@Foster

Sadly, we won't be going into Gurren Lagann-levels of matryoshka doll mecha or mecha-ception. Are you expressing interest? If so, did you want to do a 1x1 or would you be interested in group RP, since I am floating the idea of making this a group RP.

Mecha Kaiju Mashup

@mattmanganon

I could make this a group RP, but last time I tried, people couldn't even make their characters and dropped almost instantly for some reason. I figured in a 1x1 I could at least hope the one other person was dedicated. But if you can gather a group of trustworthy friends, I could totally do it.

Mecha Kaiju Mashup

I have an idea that I've been wanting to try that is like a mix of Ultraman, Pacific Rim, and Godzilla, with a layer of Neon Genesis Evangelion's philosophical transhumanism.

In the wake of giant monster attacks and the appearance of an Ultraman-like savior, mankind has developed 4 branches of anti-monster defense. The first relies on the giant savior, the second on controlling and pitting monster against monster, the third on creating giant mecha, and the fourth on utilizing conventional military to provide support to the other three branches. The player character (you) would be a member of one of the three branches, excluding the first branch, and will learn more about the organization in charge and the people in it, the origins of the monsters, and how far humans are willing to go to protect themselves.

If this idea interests you, then below are my RP habits. I tend to be casual to advanced and expect similarly from my player. For this idea, I will basically be GMing and playing the NPCs. You can play multiple characters if you want. While I am not looking for smut, I will not be averse to it if it happens as a result of the story. I am slow at posting and can take weeks to respond depending on how busy I am. I can RP either through a forum thread, a DM, or Discord. if you want to do Discord, ask for it in DMs.

Yeah, that should be it ask if you have any questions.

Just Another Hero [Invite-Only]

Akisuji Gendou

---

Location: 1B Homeroom, Eirei Academy, Shibuya, Tokyo Prefecture
Mentions: N/A

Gendou sat in a corner of the classroom, his eyes (still inside his head) scanning the other students. His body ached from over-exertion, and a migraine assaulted him; a symptom of pushing his quirk to its limits during the sports festival. Part of him was proud; he had performed surprisingly well, especially during the maze section where his eyes could scout ahead for the best route, and during the archery section, where his aim was as simple as looking at his targets. Part of him was apprehensive; his performance had pushed him into class 1B with students he didn't know and he worried that there was a former 1B student whose spot he had usurped who might hold a grudge. What was more troubling though, was that a lot of the students who had done exceptionally well during the festival were in this class too. Gendou had assumed that the A, B, and C classes were ordered by ability, but now he wasn't so sure. But if all the best students of the year were here, did he really deserve to be among them? Or was there some other 'issue' with these students that landed them here, despite their performance? Was this the problem class?

As if to cement this hypothesis, a student advisor came in and introduced herself as their teacher going forward; unorthodox, but not unheard of. But her entrance immediately sparked an argument that escalated rapidly, causing Gendou to cover his head with his hands and keep himself low to his desk. Though very little violence had actually taken place, Gendou simply didn't deal well with flaring tempers, and his best bet was simply to stay out of it; better that they were gunning for each other than home in on him as the target of bullying. However, Gendou almost shrieked as Yusuke unleashed his quirk, copying the quirks of several of the others who had been arguing with him, only to be shot by the teacher. At this point, Gendou was shaking and covering his mouth with his hands. For a brief moment, he was convinced that their teacher had just committed murder before she mentioned that she had shot Yusuke with an anti-quirk bullet. So she wasn't a murderer, just a psychopath.

"This is the problem class, this is the problem class, this is the problem class..." this mantra repeated over and over again in Gendou's mind as he tried to come to terms with his current predicament. "Why am I here? What did I do wrong?"

Just Another Hero [Invite-Only]

Akisuji Gendou

ɴᴀᴍᴇ
Akisuji Gendou (光線 眼瞳)

ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ
Eyeball Hero - Omega

ʟɪꜰᴇᴛɪᴍᴇ
13-10-2110 (in numbers) · 17

ꜱᴛᴀɢᴇᴘʟᴀʏ
Sorry, I couldn't keep it brief.

Personality

Gendou lacks the courage to stand up for himself due to a childhood of being bullied. This comes with low self-esteem and a desire for acceptance, which can lead to over-acquiescence and dishonesty in order to please those around him. Fear of rejection also leads to a generally shy demeanor.

Gendou wants to overcome his weakness and make his father proud, but this feeling of responsibility is as likely to motivate him as it is to make him feel despondent. In a sense, he feels cursed, and believes that everything bad that happens is because of him, and readily takes blame for things that are not his fault.

Borne from a constant gauging of his surroundings for approval, Gendou is always looking at the people around him, trying to determine who is a threat, and how he can ingratiate himself to them. Though there is always the question of sincerity and intention, this does somewhat reveal Gendou's gentle and caring nature, as he has a tendency to provide support to his peers when he notices that they need it.

Unfortunately, Gendou also has a dark side that expresses itself as violence, either directed outward, or inward. A part of him wants to stop being a ‘people-pleaser’ and to just let loose his pent-up aggression and live out his dark fantasies of revenge. Another part sees this desire for destruction as ‘villainous tendencies’, and results in self-loathing to the point of wanting to remove himself from existence so that he doesn’t harm people and become the bullies he hates. As it turns out, his quirk has tremendous potential to cause harm, and great first-strike capabilities; so the better he masters his quirk, the more he will have to wrestle with the seduction of power.

History

Gendou's father, Mr. Akisuji, was a man with a curse. With the quirk, Death Glare, he could, upon activation of his quirk, instill dread in anyone he gazed upon. His large, intimidating frame also added to his ability to cause fear. However, Mr. Akisuji was a normal man with normal ambitions, and he strove his whole life never to use his quirk due to its tendency to forcefully coerce people. He would not allow himself to become a villain, but he had no desire to become a hero. But this didn't mean that he was a pushover, and if he needed to, he could stand up for himself, his size usually being enough of a deterrent. However, a few times in his life, the nature of his quirk was leaked, and those who had been intimidated by him would use this fact to accuse him of illegal quirk use. Since there was no way to prove one way or another whether or not they were intimidated by his size alone or by his quirk, such accusations usually ended up in favor of the accuser, and Mr. Akisuji had, as a result, lost many jobs and opportunities due to these false accusations, making life difficult for him and his new family. From then on, Mr. Akisuji did his best to be as non-confrontational and as non-threatening as possible and to not let anyone feel intimidated by him, being reduced to a sycophant and yes-man in the office.

As Mr. Akisuji's son, Gendou was instilled with his father's ideals. Realizing that Gendou's ability to shoot lasers from his eyes was far more dangerous than just instilling fear, his father forbade him from using his quirk, yet he still wanted his son to stand up for himself. In a sense, Mr. Akisuji's frustrations at not being able to express himself in his workplace made him want all the more for his son to have a spine. But Gendou was gentle, like his mother, and his ability to make numerous eyes come floating out of his head was seen as gross and creepy by his classmates, ostracizing him. Things started to get out of hand when bullies discovered that smacking the back of Gendou's head hard enough would cause eyeballs to come popping out. The bullies would then throw the eyes against walls, hit them with baseball bats, or grind them into the pavement with their heels, causing Gendou tremendous pain. The bullies literally had Gendou by the (eye)balls and could order him around as they pleased, threatening his eyes should he disobey. Gendou would return home everyday, beaten and bruised. His father would tell him to fight back, but without using his quirk, which seemed like an impossible task since he was physically rather weak. Unfortunately, Mr. Akisuji was always busy with work and didn't have much time to spend with Gendou to really coach him on how to defend himself, and their relationship became estranged.

On the other hand, Gendou's mother was a gentle soul with fragile health who had attended UA's support class, and worked as a hero support item engineer. However, due to UA's high standards, even the support class had to learn about heroic ethical standards. Because Gendou's mother soothed him by telling him that his quirk wasn't creepy and that it was, in fact, an amazing quirk, Gendou would ask if he could use his quirk in retaliation of his bullies, to which his mother would sit him down with a heroic ethics textbook and explain why he shouldn't do that. As a result, Gendou's tormented mind was exposed at an early age to concepts of moral philosophy. Though she didn't really push for it, Gendou's mother recommended that he should consider becoming a hero to learn what it means to wield power responsibly. This recommendation eventually became a final request, as Gendou's mother passed away due to her poor health.

After Gendou's mother passed, Mr. Akisuji sat Gendou down and they had a heart to heart. Mr. Akisuji acknowledged that life wasn't fair, and that it often sucked. They were both cursed with their quirks. Mr. Akisuji agreed with his late wife and suggested that perhaps Gendou should try to become a hero. It would allow him to finally use his quirk and hopefully allow him to build confidence and climb his way out of this spiral of bullying that he found himself trapped in. Mr. Akisuji apologized for not confronting Gendou's bullies' parents or the school about it, but he knew that if he tried, he could get in trouble again for 'illegal quirk use'. If Gendou could be famous, if he could be popular, he would be able to change the negative perception surrounding his quirk. At the very least, Mr. Akisuji hoped that Gendou would be surrounded by peers with heroic personalities who would be too civilized to bully him, even though he knew his son did not have the stomach for competition, nor the strength to endure the hardships of a hero curriculum. Mr. Akisuji wanted Gendou to prove himself, for both of their sakes, and to honor his mother. Finally, Mr. Akisuji said something that would stick with Gendou, "A curse is just a gift that's been squandered," and for once in his life, Gendou felt the motivation to actually do something to turn his life around.

In the short time before the entrance exam, Gendou tried to toughen up, with minimal results, but he reviewed everything his mother had taught him about ethics. He trained his quirk in secret with his father, though he still had a long way to go. So with nothing but a prayer and a mother's dying wish, Gendou applied to several hero academies, floundered, got rejected by his mother's alma mater, but was ultimately accepted at Eirei. Though the physical training was grueling for his frail frame, he persevered, relying on his keen sense of awareness and intelligence, which earned him recurring internships under Best Jeanist.

ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ

• Strong grasp of heroic ethics.
• Mechanical and electronic tinkering (plastic model kit hobby).
• Keen spatial and motion awareness.

ꜱᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛᴇᴍ

• The Eye-Pod:
  An array of reinforced cylindrical canisters attached to his back and hips that hold several extra eyes. This allows him to prepare extra eyes prior to a confrontation and store them, deploying many eyes simultaneously without having to wait for them to pop out of his sockets two at a time. With enough eyes stored in the Eye-Pod, they can generate enough levitating force to lift Gendou into the air.
• Alpha-Wave Headband:
  An electronic circlet worn on the head using piezoelectric vibrations to soothe brain discomfort, such as headaches, nausea, and vertigo. Not perfect, but it lets Gendou command more eyes for longer.

Qᴜɪʀᴋ
Eye-Craft Carrier – Metamophosis/Psychokinesis
[Repressed]

Quirk Explanation

This quirk allows Gendou to launch an indeterminate number of floating eyeballs from his eye sockets. The eyes fly and emit laser beams via telepathic command, and Gendou can see and feel what the eyeballs see and feel. Each eyeball will dissolve into gelatin after 12 hours of being outside Gendou’s head.

At their lowest strength, the lasers emitted have the heat transfer equivalent of sunlight under a magnifying glass, able to ignite paper within seconds. At their highest strength, the laser is like a weak blowtorch. However, the intensity of light is proportional to the square of its amplitude, so two beams concentrating on the same spot constructively interfere (ie. harmonize) and will have four times the heat transfer, three beams concentrating on the same spot will have nine times the heat transfer, and so on and so forth.

The eyes can fly at 25mph, and can carry up to 1000 times its own weight before rupturing. However, its speed decreases proportional to the total weight it is carrying.

Eye-craft Carrier is great for scouting and search-and-rescue operations, with a focus on the ‘search’ part. Each eye is small, and makes no noise when flying, so they can be used for stealth and recon missions. Though each individual laser is fairly weak, the exponential nature of the beams can make for devastating ranged attacks. It is also very difficult to miss since aiming is by sight and lasers travel at lightspeed.

Although the eyeballs are significantly tougher than a normal eyeball and therefore feel less pain than a normal eyeball would, they still feel pain nonetheless. Think of them as having the toughness of an untrained, balled-up fist. They are, however, not sensitive to drying like a normal eye would be, though getting wet will obscure their vision, and they can be easily disoriented with bright or flashing lights.

The more eyeballs Gendou commands simultaneously, the more he suffers from various brain-related conditions such as nausea, vertigo, and migraines. Gendou can comfortably control ten external eyeballs at once (not including the two in his head, for a total of twelve), with increasing mental strain with each additional eyeball over his limit of comfort, until he reaches 50% of his comfort limit (for a total of 18) at which point he will be overcome with mental strain and fall unconscious.

Just Another Hero [Invite-Only]

Akisuji Gendou

ɴᴀᴍᴇ
Akisuji Gendou (光線 眼瞳)

ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ
Eyeball Hero - Omega

ʟɪꜰᴇᴛɪᴍᴇ
13-10-2110 (in numbers) · 17

ꜱᴛᴀɢᴇᴘʟᴀʏ
Sorry, I couldn't keep it brief.

Personality

Gendou lacks the courage to stand up for himself due to a childhood of being bullied. This comes with low self-esteem and a desire for acceptance, which can lead to over-acquiescence and dishonesty in order to please those around him. Fear of rejection also leads to a generally shy demeanor.

Gendou wants to overcome his weakness and make his father proud, but this feeling of responsibility is as likely to motivate him as it is to make him feel despondent. In a sense, he feels cursed, and believes that everything bad that happens is because of him, and readily takes blame for things that are not his fault.

Borne from a constant gauging of his surroundings for approval, Gendou is always looking at the people around him, trying to determine who is a threat, and how he can ingratiate himself to them. Though there is always the question of sincerity and intention, this does somewhat reveal Gendou's gentle and caring nature, as he has a tendency to provide support to his peers when he notices that they need it.

Unfortunately, Gendou also has a dark side that expresses itself as violence, either directed outward, or inward. A part of him wants to stop being a ‘people-pleaser’ and to just let loose his pent-up aggression and live out his dark fantasies of revenge. Another part sees this desire for destruction as ‘villainous tendencies’, and results in self-loathing to the point of wanting to remove himself from existence so that he doesn’t harm people and become the bullies he hates. As it turns out, his quirk has tremendous potential to cause harm, and great first-strike capabilities; so the better he masters his quirk, the more he will have to wrestle with the seduction of power.

History

Gendou's father, Mr. Akisuji, was a man with a curse. With the quirk, Death Glare, he could, upon activation of his quirk, instill dread in anyone he gazed upon. His large, intimidating frame also added to his ability to cause fear. However, Mr. Akisuji was a normal man with normal ambitions, and he strove his whole life never to use his quirk due to its tendency to forcefully coerce people. He would not allow himself to become a villain, but he had no desire to become a hero. But this didn't mean that he was a pushover, and if he needed to, he could stand up for himself, his size usually being enough of a deterrent. However, a few times in his life, the nature of his quirk was leaked, and those who had been intimidated by him would use this fact to accuse him of illegal quirk use. Since there was no way to prove one way or another whether or not they were intimidated by his size alone or by his quirk, such accusations usually ended up in favor of the accuser, and Mr. Akisuji had, as a result, lost many jobs and opportunities due to these false accusations, making life difficult for him and his new family. From then on, Mr. Akisuji did his best to be as non-confrontational and as non-threatening as possible and to not let anyone feel intimidated by him, being reduced to a sycophant and yes-man in the office.

As Mr. Akisuji's son, Gendou was instilled with his father's ideals. Realizing that Gendou's ability to shoot lasers from his eyes was far more dangerous than just instilling fear, his father forbade him from using his quirk, yet he still wanted his son to stand up for himself. In a sense, Mr. Akisuji's frustrations at not being able to express himself in his workplace made him want all the more for his son to have a spine. But Gendou was gentle, like his mother, and his ability to make numerous eyes come floating out of his head was seen as gross and creepy by his classmates, ostracizing him. Things started to get out of hand when bullies discovered that smacking the back of Gendou's head hard enough would cause eyeballs to come popping out. The bullies would then throw the eyes against walls, hit them with baseball bats, or grind them into the pavement with their heels, causing Gendou tremendous pain. The bullies literally had Gendou by the (eye)balls and could order him around as they pleased, threatening his eyes should he disobey. Gendou would return home everyday, beaten and bruised. His father would tell him to fight back, but without using his quirk, which seemed like an impossible task since he was physically rather weak. Unfortunately, Mr. Akisuji was always busy with work and didn't have much time to spend with Gendou to really coach him on how to defend himself, and their relationship became estranged.

On the other hand, Gendou's mother was a gentle soul with fragile health who had attended UA's support class, and worked as a hero support item engineer. However, due to UA's high standards, even the support class had to learn about heroic ethical standards. Because Gendou's mother soothed him by telling him that his quirk wasn't creepy and that it was, in fact, an amazing quirk, Gendou would ask if he could use his quirk in retaliation of his bullies, to which his mother would sit him down with a heroic ethics textbook and explain why he shouldn't do that. As a result, Gendou's tormented mind was exposed at an early age to concepts of moral philosophy. Though she didn't really push for it, Gendou's mother recommended that he should consider becoming a hero to learn what it means to wield power responsibly. This recommendation eventually became a final request, as Gendou's mother passed away due to her poor health.

After Gendou's mother passed, Mr. Akisuji sat Gendou down and they had a heart to heart. Mr. Akisuji acknowledged that life wasn't fair, and that it often sucked. They were both cursed with their quirks. Mr. Akisuji agreed with his late wife and suggested that perhaps Gendou should try to become a hero. It would allow him to finally use his quirk and hopefully allow him to build confidence and climb his way out of this spiral of bullying that he found himself trapped in. Mr. Akisuji apologized for not confronting Gendou's bullies' parents or the school about it, but he knew that if he tried, he could get in trouble again for 'illegal quirk use'. If Gendou could be famous, if he could be popular, he would be able to change the negative perception surrounding his quirk. At the very least, Mr. Akisuji hoped that Gendou would be surrounded by peers with heroic personalities who would be too civilized to bully him, even though he knew his son did not have the stomach for competition, nor the strength to endure the hardships of a hero curriculum. Mr. Akisuji wanted Gendou to prove himself, for both of their sakes, and to honor his mother. Finally, Mr. Akisuji said something that would stick with Gendou, "A curse is just a gift that's been squandered," and for once in his life, Gendou felt the motivation to actually do something to turn his life around.

In the short time before the entrance exam, Gendou tried to toughen up, with minimal results, but he reviewed everything his mother had taught him about ethics. He trained his quirk in secret with his father, though he still had a long way to go. So with nothing but a prayer and a mother's dying wish, Gendou applied to several hero academies, floundered, got rejected by his mother's alma mater, but was ultimately accepted at Eirei. Though the physical training was grueling for his frail frame, he persevered, relying on his keen sense of awareness and intelligence, which earned him recurring internships under Best Jeanist.

ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ

• Strong grasp of heroic ethics.
• Mechanical and electronic tinkering (plastic model kit hobby).
• Keen spatial and motion awareness.

ꜱᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛᴇᴍ

• The Eye-Pod:
  An array of reinforced cylindrical canisters attached to his back and hips that hold several extra eyes. This allows him to prepare extra eyes prior to a confrontation and store them, deploying many eyes simultaneously without having to wait for them to pop out of his sockets two at a time. With enough eyes stored in the Eye-Pod, they can generate enough levitating force to lift Gendou into the air.
• Alpha-Wave Headband:
  An electronic circlet worn on the head using piezoelectric vibrations to soothe brain discomfort, such as headaches, nausea, and vertigo. Not perfect, but it lets Gendou command more eyes for longer.

Qᴜɪʀᴋ
Eye-Craft Carrier – Metamophosis/Psychokinesis
[Repressed]

Quirk Explanation

This quirk allows Gendou to launch an indeterminate number of floating eyeballs from his eye sockets. The eyes fly and emit laser beams via telepathic command, and Gendou can see and feel what the eyeballs see and feel. Each eyeball will dissolve into gelatin after 12 hours of being outside Gendou’s head.

At their lowest strength, the lasers emitted have the heat transfer equivalent of sunlight under a magnifying glass, able to ignite paper within seconds. At their highest strength, the laser is like a weak blowtorch. However, the intensity of light is proportional to the square of its amplitude, so two beams concentrating on the same spot constructively interfere (ie. harmonize) and will have four times the heat transfer, three beams concentrating on the same spot will have nine times the heat transfer, and so on and so forth.

The eyes can fly at 25mph, and can carry up to 1000 times its own weight before rupturing. However, its speed decreases proportional to the total weight it is carrying.

Eye-craft Carrier is great for scouting and search-and-rescue operations, with a focus on the ‘search’ part. Each eye is small, and makes no noise when flying, so they can be used for stealth and recon missions. Though each individual laser is fairly weak, the exponential nature of the beams can make for devastating ranged attacks. It is also very difficult to miss since aiming is by sight and lasers travel at lightspeed.

Although the eyeballs are significantly tougher than a normal eyeball and therefore feel less pain than a normal eyeball would, they still feel pain nonetheless. Think of them as having the toughness of an untrained, balled-up fist. They are, however, not sensitive to drying like a normal eye would be, though getting wet will obscure their vision, and they can be easily disoriented with bright or flashing lights.

The more eyeballs Gendou commands simultaneously, the more he suffers from various brain-related conditions such as nausea, vertigo, and migraines. Gendou can comfortably control ten external eyeballs at once (not including the two in his head, for a total of twelve), with increasing mental strain with each additional eyeball over his limit of comfort, until he reaches 50% of his comfort limit (for a total of 18) at which point he will be overcome with mental strain and fall unconscious.

Arknights: 5S

Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Police Station - Early evening

Polka looked concerned as her eyes darted from Jericho to Ash Girl, and back to Jericho, "If Victoria and Leithanien want to fight over this weapon, then wouldn't the pragmatic thing to do be to keep our noses out if it?" She was glad they didn't bring Baltasar along. "What happened to Nur is...regrettable, but opposing either nation could endanger not only Rhodes Island but this city."

"You do have a point, but I don't think we can avoid this. In fact, I think the old hag already knows. Minimalist, you have that picture your friend sent you?" Jericho held out his hand to the Durin. Minimalist looked confused, but pulls out the photo and hands it to the older Aegirian. Jericho holds it out for the group to see. The photograph seemed to show the inside of a massive, artificial cavern. A large, imposing, obsidian octahedron was suspended from the ceiling of the cave via enormous chains. Catwalks, scaffolds, and military equipment seemed to surround the object. "This was the last thing he sent you? What do you think this geometric object could be? It's large and mysterious, it's somewhere in Sargon, and some military power is investigating it. Stitch, I think your friend has been captured by Leithaniens for snooping."

Minimalist swallowed heavily but said nothing. A closed off and thorny individual, he rarely displayed friendliness or empathy, but concern for his friend's wellbeing was written all over his face.

"Dr. Kal'tsit definitely wants us to get involved in this," Jericho continued, "As the managers of Hisn-ul-Zahra's infected orphanage, we owe it to this city to bring Nur home. As Rhodes island operators, we owe it to Minimalist to save Catch. And from the sound of it, all three nations are operating in secrecy, so if we do go up against them, at the very least, they cannot openly implicate us without revealing their own undercover dealings." He turned to Polka, "But I've never been much of a dictator. If we do this, we do this together."

Polka looked conflicted, as if wrestling with some specter of the past. "No, you're both right. This is bigger than our clinic, bigger than this city."

At that moment, the Lady Ameera and her sentinel emerged from the observation room. "I've come to my decision, I hope Rhodes Island will be in agreement. When I founded this city, I wanted to be different from the other Lords Ameer who jockey for position with the Golden City while selling their dignity in exchange for foreign favors, who capitulate to the encroachment of colonial forces and sacrifice their citizens for modern luxuries." She shook her head, "Dr. Irving believes me to be naive for allowing a 'paramilitary corporation' to run a clinic, but my partnership with Rhodes island was fully intentional. I know what your pharmaceutical company is capable of. The diplomatic position that I wish Hisn-ul-Zahra to maintain, welcoming to the outside without succumbing to influence, is not easy without some force to back it up. To stand up to the might of Victoria, Columbia, and Leithanien is not possible, even if the whole of Sargon were to unite, let alone our young, isolated city. But I will not allow one of Hisn-ul-Zahra's children to be kidnapped, infected or not, nor will I allow Sargon's history to be defiled. So I would like to implore Rhodes Island to please save the child and prevent these foreign powers from resurrecting one of Sargon's most ancient sins."

"Then we are in accord," Jericho answered on behalf of the group, "This is not something we can turn a blind eye to. Of course, we will do our best to ensure that your fine city does not fall within the enemy's crosshairs."

Zainab nodded solemnly, then turned to Aisha, "You will go with them."

"My Ameera! What about the city?" Aisha protested.

"You trained your deputy personally, did you not? Then I will trust the safety of the city to him. But you I trust to aid our allies in this sensitive external matter."

"I... I understand," Aisha saluted, then turned to the group, "Please prepare what you need. I'll get the Victorians ready. Contact me when you wish to plan out the mission."

"Of course," Jericho didn't argue, "Your local expertise will be most appreciated."

The Rhodes Islanders headed back to the clinic office and began preparing equipment and supplies. As a catastrophe messenger, Earthspirit had a sizable van, though given the number of operators if they included Aisha and the two Victorians, they might need two vehicles. The Rhodes Island branch had a transport they could use, but Aisha likely had her own.

Arknights: 5S

Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Rhodes Island Oripathy Clinic - Late afternoon

Though Earthspirit often came off as emotionless, this was due to her collected and rational demeanor, and the natural guardedness that one needed to function in Leithanien high society. This does not mean that she was without empathy, and seeing the rise her words had gotten out of Aoife, she quickly tempered her words, "To be fair, everything I've said is merely conjecture. We do not know what their intentions are."

---

Sargon - Hisn-ul-Zahra City Plate - Police Station - Early evening

The office of the Rhodes Island clinic received a call from Aisha who was at the police station, letting them know that 'Dr.' Irving was awake and ready to talk. This time, Jericho, Polka, and Earthspirit came, alongside Ash Girl and Minimalist, though they did not bring Baltasar. Jericho decided that a jail was no place for a child, but that they'd fill him in when they returned.

The team was greeted by officers at the station who escorted them inside until they arrived at a fairly standard looking interrogation room, complete with one-way mirror, a table, and a lamp. Both the Cautus, Dr. Warren Irving, and his bodyguard, the black-and-white female Perro, were there, sitting at the table handcuffed, while Aisha stood beside the table looking down on them. Polka, who preferred not to be too confrontational, opted to go into the observation room, where, surprisingly, the Archosauria Lady Ameera Zainab Nubani waited, hidden and watching.

"He said he wanted to talk to Rhodes Island members specifically. I was going to share any information I received with you anyways, so this makes things easy. Alright, Victorian, what's this all about?" She asked sternly.

Warren looked at his bodyguard for approval, and she nodded. With a sigh, he began, "Have you heard of the Lilium Tablet?"

"Oh no..." Earthspirit muttered to herself, "You're looking for the weapon of the Sun Kings." She pinched the bridge of her nose, as if suffering from a headache, but she was simply overwhelmed by people's stupidity.

"And why shouldn't we? After what the Sarkaz have done, Victoria needs strength!"

"Dr. Irving...now's not the time..." The Perro spoke up, interrupting him in a surprisingly calm and gentle tone.

He looked at her and seemed to soften, "Regardless, I understand your skepticism. The weapon may not even be real. But what if it is? Its power would be too great to leave in the hands of these sava..." Aisha's fist clenched audibly. Warren cleared his throat. "Study of the tablet was done jointly between Victoria and Leithanien. The tablet has more information on it than has been revealed to the public, and the Leithaniens have discovered where the weapon is. You may not trust us, but I assure you, Leithanien is not where you want an ancient superweapon to go."

"Sadly, I have to agree," Earthspirit added, "The spire casters are too reckless and unscrupulous when it comes to wielding arts, and many still long for the days of the Witch King."

"Right? Victoria would keep the weapon safe! There is another major concern though. The Tablet is written in three languages. Ancient Sargonian, which is so different from modern Sargonian that only specialists, like myself, can read it, Ancient Minoan, and..."

"Ancient Sarkaz," Earthspirit added with some solemnity.

"Exactly. What if the weapon is Sarkaz in origin? if this is true, then Victoria knows better than any other nation to keep this weapon protected and sealed away so that it can never be used. Unfortunately, the Leithaniens have already begun excavating the site where the weapon's final resting place is purported to be. But they will not be able to activate it. The tablet talks about the line of kings beginning with the first Sun King, Ozman the Third, styled 'Ozman Theos, The Builder'. The weapon only reacts to one of his blood. And that's where your missing child comes in. We...hired a group of mercenaries from the Columbian frontier to help us find anyone who may be descended from the Sun Kings. But as soon as they found him, they betrayed us. To stop them from leaving with the child, we had a confrontation at the gate. It seems Columbia has taken an interest in weapon as well. And that's where you come in. I know what Rhodes Island is capable of. I know you don't want anyone activating the weapon. I know you also want to save the infected child. Right now, the Leithaniens have the weapon, and the Columbians have the child, and I want them to have neither, so in this our goals are aligned. I only have Emma...I mean, Sargeant Huxley to help me," He referred to the perro beside him, "But I understand Ancient Sargonian and this weapon better than anyone and am therefore the most qualified to stop it should it become active. I am proposing a temporary alliance to: one, defeat the Columbians who kidnapped your orphan, and two, to defeat the Leithanien force currently excavating the weapon."

"NO! You don't get to negotiate, Victorian! You're under Hisn-ul-Zahra's jurisdiction yet you have the gall to go over our Lady Ameera's head!" Aisha turned to the Rhodes Islanders with a hint of unease and suspicion, but she kept it under control, "Please vacate the interrogation chamber." She tried to shoo everyone but the Victorians out, and Jericho obliged, leading the team into the hall.

The Lady Ameera waited in the hallway, brow furrowed, arms crossed, deep in thought, Polka stood next to her. She turned to the Rhodes Islanders and greeted them, "Peace be upon you. For those I haven't met before, it is regrettable that we meet under such unusual circumstances. I hope our city has treated you well?"

"Yes, My Lady, Hisn-ul-Zahra has been a beacon of comfort in these harsh climes," Jericho replied.

Aisha walked up to Zainab and whispered something. "Please excuse us, my sentinel wishes to speak with me in private." The two Sargonians enter the observation room and close the door, leaving the Rhodes Islanders in the hall. A few guards are there to keep an eye on them.

"Well, shit..." Jericho pulls out his specialized oripathy medicine atomizer that looks like an e-cig and takes a long, tired drag on it to soothe his throat. After exhaling, he says but one word, "Thoughts?"

Scion: The Prophecy of Anani

Sara, Daughter of Aliya

Interacting with: @Obscene Symphony as Jannick, @OwO as Hollyhock, @Abstract Proxy as Dominick, @Hero as Renata et al

Sara smiled gently at Renata. Having worked in a church, she had seen her fair share of people most would consider mad among the homeless and destitute. Contrary to popular belief, they were mostly harmless; victims of circumstance whose only recourse had been to dissociate from reality. Yet Sara couldn't help but wonder if, in a different time, in a different world, where faith had died young and skepticism masked itself as enlightenment, would not the prophets who shaped the history of Gaia have been regarded as mad? Certainly, such a claim had been leveled against missionaries that had been sent to other nations. A thought crossed Sara's mind to once again be disobedient of her station and turned to Dom.

"This may be irresponsible of me to suggest, but perhaps we can bring her along? Surrounded by two Scions and two Templars, I'm certain we should be able to keep her safe." 'Or perhaps, she can help keep us safe,' Sara thought, though she did not voice this last part. Sara knew that she shouldn't do anything to dilute her protection away from her Scion and muttered a quiet apology to Irina."I do not doubt that she will find a way to follow us should we head in without her, and I do not wish for her to come to harm." Sara looked at Jannick, understanding that, as the only one here who knew Renata, he would be the most torn.