quote:

+2: DDD It's some kind of technology that allows one to summon demons, and collect currency. $oul. It seems important to collect and use it. Can anyone use these? Can we potentially summon more than one demon? Why did it suddenly appear, as if out of nowhere? Is it connected to the events occurring in Athena City? Why does the demon summoned by it have to obey the Contract we create? This thing is worth a lot of questions. Hopefully the answers will come with time.

+6: Sun Wukong A figure steeped in tradition. A character from one of the most famous stories ever written. He sure doesn't act like it, though. He seems to like me, and I can put up with his antics. I call it a fair trade.

+6: Occult Agent From childhood, I've been trained in a variety of areas. Martial arts, marksmanship, use of technology like computers, stealth, athleticism, medicine. Most important, techniques and knowledge regarding what others would call the 'supernatural.' Where do I hit this demon? Does this ghost have any weaknesses? Where do monsters most often gather, and when? Being able to answer questions like these is the result of training and experience. Without it, I wouldn't be standing here today.

+2: The Eye of the Storm Some people I work with say it's unusual how calm I am. Do I show any emotion, they wonder? I'd like to humor them and say no, but if you get me angry enough, or tell me a funny joke, I'm not always impassive. When the poo poo hits the fan, however, I know it's good to have people like me around, who can give and take orders without freaking out about whatever's coming at them.

-4: Cold as Ice Slow to trust might be an understatement. It's my job to be suspicious of everyone, everything. I'm trying to find the truth, to complete my missions, not bond over shared trauma. You get the job done, you do what you're supposed to, and then maybe we'll talk. Until then, you might just have a pair of black eyes watching your every move, a trained near-photographic memory hanging on every word.

quote:

To satisfy your heart's deepest desire, would you sacrifice another living human being? [YES] / [NO] ?

This question is ridiculous. Most people don't even know what their heart's deepest desire is, let alone whether they'd be willing to kill for it. The same goes for me. I suppose, ignoring all the possible questions and implications of the scenario where something like this could happen, I can't say I wouldn't be willing. I've had to kill before, and I will probably have to keep killing until this blows over. Whether it's for the mission or for personal gain, it's not something I can ignore; in a crisis, pacifism is almost more dangerous than the willingness to do what you have to. It can put other people in danger. It can cause more harm than good. I have to entertain the possibility; whether or not I actually would depends on the context, the circumstances.

What part of town were you in? What do you think happened to the second plane?

Thankfully, my apartment, more of a safehouse, really, was fairly far away from the bridge. But the demons didn't care about that. They went everywhere, came after everyone. I tracked my attackers to a nearby school, where I was posing as a student. There weren't many survivors. Sort of a grisly sight, really; halls lined with blood, corpses slumped over desks. These creatures are going after dense population areas, central locations, places where transportation of a lot of bodies at once is key: schools, hospitals, bus stops, subway lines. Until communications go back up across the city, they're also my best shot to find others. There had to be other agents like me stationed here in Athena City; not that I could ever track them down, since everything about all of us is so hush-hush. Not a great idea when we've got demons coming out of every alley.

As for the second plane...too much conjecture. A plane can't just disappear. Meaning, it had to go somewhere. Was it hijacked by monsters, or possessed people, flown somewhere else? Into something else? Did the crew aboard hear they were flying into a warzone and decided to touch down elsewhere, get away from the chaos? Has it already crashed, and we just don't know where, when, why, or how? All troubling thoughts, distinctly different possibilities they may be. There's only one way to find out what happened for sure: track it down, by any means necessary.

PurplieNurplie posted:

Shuusuke Takeda, Code-Name: 黒曜石 -- Obsidian

So, this is the part where I tell you all about me, right? My sad, tragic backstory, where I pour my heart out and then you try to make sense of me afterwards.

Unfortunately, in the world of espionage, information is crucial, necessary to one's survival. Ever heard of 'need to know?' 'Give and take?' These aren't just rules of thumb for people like me; they're law.

In other words, most of the information I can or might tell you is classified.

What I can tell you is this: the governments of the world have been concerned by the rise of occult activity. I'm not talking about kids in their basements drawing pentagrams, or people claiming to be abducted by aliens via sleep paralysis. Real attacks by demons, ghosts, real cases of normally sane people seemingly possessed, murdering those closest to them before offing themselves.

Agents like me were trained and placed all over the world, in cities everywhere, posing as students, office workers, people who you might just pass on the street. We answer to code-names or our false identities. Our job is to investigate these activities, stop them if we're able.

Once, I was just an ordinary Japanese citizen. Now, I'm 'Shuusuke,' 'Obsidian', so called because the other guys thought it was pretty cute how I dressed in all black. Whatever.

I was in Athena City when the apocalypse happened. The DDD was in my apartment. I thought it was requisition. Turns out it was more like a lifeline. The demon I summoned helped me fend off the first ones that broke in.

I probably could've taken them by myself; I've been trained and honed by missions, but I certainly didn't mind the extra pair of hands.

quote:

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT --

DATE: CLASSIFIED

LOCATION: CLASSIFIED

TIME: CLASSIFIED


A: Are we recording? Good, good; This is [REDACTED], and I'm with President [REDACTED]. So nice to see you; please, have a seat.

B: First you'll have to tell me what the hell's going on out there. Those are children!

A: The word is agents, Mr. President. They're here, whether by choice or conscription, to become the best qualified people on Earth to face...extra-dimensional threats.

B: Extra-dimension-- are you even listening to yourself right now? What are you talking about?

A: I think you know that as well as I do. How many crimes have gone unsolved? What lies beneath Roswell, New Mexico? Who shot John F. Kennedy? Why have paranormal events been growing at an exponential rate? Most importantly...what will happen in Athena City?

B: How long have you been doing this? Hiding beneath paperwork, under fake job titles and fund allocation? This isn't something we can just ignore!

A: Interpol does not hide its subsidiaries, Mr. President. They are a global force. The world needs our agents, and so we do a job. There's no conspiracy, no secret.

B: Then why don't you exist?

A: You could be possessed. I could be a demon. The only way we can do our job is, as you put it, by 'hiding.' Really, it's more like we've been waiting. And now, it's time for us to move. Otherwise, things might get a bit...messy.

B: This is absurd! You will be shut down, I promise you that. By the authority granted to me as President --

A: I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this. Your bodyguards look like they could take on just about anyone, Mr President. But, I wonder...can they take on a man who doesn't flinch when faced with a demon?

C: Mr. President, you're being asked politely to leave. I can't stay polite forever.

B: Are you threatening me?

C: Asking. Politely.

B: Fine. You're monsters, all of you. This whole operation.

C: Was that the right thing to do?

A: He merely had to see what we were. The word he used, monsters...he's not entirely wrong. M.O.N.S.T.E.R. I suppose he at least looked up the name.

C: The Multinational Squadron for Tactical Espionage and Reconnaissance...why that name?

A: We're dealing with monsters, after all, Obsidian. What better way to fight them, than to become monsters ourselves?

END TRANSCRIPT

PurplieNurplie posted:

Leraika posted:

Still looking for someone? Love me some SMT.

Leraika posted:

Still looking for someone? Love me some SMT.

Poison Mushroom posted:

Gimme a bit to read up, I'll throw something together soon.

quote:

+4: DDD (jailbroken) The first rule of hacking is that nothing is impenetrable, and Ziva's managed to get root access on her DDD. As for what she can do with that at the moment... well, nothing super interesting. But she's working on it!

+4: Mothman A demon as mysterious as it is strange and as incomprehensible as it is mysterious, Mothman is apparently Ziva's companion now, since it won't stop following her around.

+4: Hacker, Phreaker, Cracker Whatever you call it, if it involves electronics, Ziva's probably the girl you want for the job.

+2: Indomitable Spirit It'll take more than the end of the world to bring Ziva Tavernier down. She might not be all that tough, and she might have no idea what she's doing, but she'll stand tall and keep swinging until the end.

+2 Social Engineer The second rule of hacking is that it's always easier to get some other sucker to do your job for you. Whether it's pretending to be an official or just talking really loud and really fast, there's something to be said for a good ol'fashioned flimflam.

-2 Can't Let it Go Is there a problem that needs solved? Justice that needs to be done? It's going to be done, no matter how long it takes. No ifs ands or buts...

-2 The Ends Justify the Means ...And it's not like we're running a popularity contest here, people. Sometimes tough decisions need to be made, and you have to break a few eggs to solve those problems. In their stupid egg faces.

Leraika posted:

You want to know about me? Sure, that's no problem. Name's Ziva Tavernier, I'm twenty six years old, five foot four, one hundred ten pounds, parents came over from France in the sixties for free love or something like it, I work as an 'information consultant'. That's what I've got down on the screen, and that's what I tell people when they ask. But let me let you in on a little secret, a'ight? Just you and me, no one else.

None of that loving matters.

You want to know what does matter, then? Well, let's see. That 'information consulting' job? Sure, it's real enough. Big corporations, politicians, billionaires who think they can gently caress us all over and get away scot-free? They step out of line too far and I will consult the poo poo out of their information... and make sure it's posted, in all its lovely detail, all over at least three major news sites the next day. I kinda like to think of it like I'm a modern day Robin Hood; I steal from the assholes and leak to the internet. You know how it is.

'Course, I wasn't alone. There were a group of us, you know? All going by codenames, all doing our best to make this lovely world a little better in our own special ways. We called ourselves - and I guess this is kind of silly, hearing it actually spoken out loud - the Hand of Ma'at. You know, like the goddess? No? Okay. Anyway, she's the goddess of order, morality, judgment, that kind of thing. She's the one who judged people at the end of their lives, literally weighing out their sins. I guess it seemed appropriate enough (and kind of spooky, maybe?) so... you know, I have no idea who actually suggested, it but it ended up sticking.

Am I going somewhere with this? Okay, first, gently caress you. Second: You know those weird phablet things we got a couple of days ago? A week before they showed up, I woke up and got to work and... complete radio silence. It's like everyone I worked with just dropped off the face of the earth at once. Being the entirely reasonable and rational person I am, of course, I say to myself 'Self, maybe it's just a coincidence'. Fair enough, self. But then a couple of days passed, and nothing at all, and I started getting a little worried, because that's how I am, I'm just the caringest person on the face of this earth, and then it was a week, those DDS things randomly appeared out of nowhere, and then, well, all loving hell broke loose.

...They called themselves the 'Hand of Sekhmet', you know? It's gotta be a coincidence, right? Gotta be. But if it isn't, if the Hand of Ma'at's going dead is somehow linked to this bunch of murdering fuckbenches, well... rest assured I'm gonna hunt them down and, personally, beat the poo poo out of them. Even if they used to be my very best friends in the entire world.

code:

gAwYNnLYO!

Oh right. That phablet thing, the DDS? It called up a weird...thing. DDS says it's a 'moth man' and that it's there for my protection, but it's just, uh, made noises like that at me and eaten everything I've put in front of it. Is it really a demon? I was expecting something a little more...hellfire.


(sorry for the delay, I managed to injure myself rather badly and tldr it has been a lovely two weeks. Do let me know if I need something or if the concept isn't suitable.)