THROUGH STRIFE AND FAMINE AND WAR AND PEACE,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Fight in the historic Battle of Valmy.
WHEN? September 20th, 1792. Valmy.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

it'll be fine;

between sainte-menehould and valmy,
1792: revolutionary france.

read the valmy setting infopage

MISSION OBJECTIVE

Win the day!

Historically, Valmy was an unexpected victory for France that really kicked off the French Revolution. Make sure this holds true! Don't let the Prussians break through French lines, take either Dumouriez or Kellerman, and survive.

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO GOETHE

The life of Goethe was saved by those who volunteered to keep him from the clutches of Regency assassination, though it was a near thing; they were not able to leave completely stealthily, and had to run back to French lines as dawn broke.

Most important after saving the life of Goethe, they were able to apprehend and capture the Regency spy. She is in holding, restrained in a tent hidden far behind enemy lines. You can speak with her, if you wish.



SHARPSHOOTING

Famously, Kellerman had his troups climb up a windmill and the nearby farmhouse to shoot down at the valley below and the Prussians attempting to run through it from the cover of the forest. Take out as many Prussians as you can. Alternatively, if you're not much for shooting but you're quick fingered and organized, you can help reload the shooter's muskets, hand them supplies, more musket balls and powder, fresh muskets when one of theirs becomes jammed, or simply keep the rain out of their eyes.

Battery

You hear that? It's canonfire! Cannons take at least two people to load, aim and fire, making it a steady process requiring teamwork and balance. You want to go as fast as possible so the attacking army doesn't get right up to your nose, after all. Be careful! Don't drop a cannonball on your foot.

COMBAT

Get into the thick of it! There's less armor in this era, more quick jabs with sabers and bayonets, and your pistol can only hold a single bullet at a time. Unless you've got time to reload, you're better off just throwing the thing aside after firing a shot-- you'll see this tactic is popular among troops on either side, not wanting to be weighed down by a now-useless hunk of metal. Horses are not uncommon either, though they're largely reserved for officers who are more than happy to reach down and stab you while they ride by… if they don't just run you over in the first place. And did I mention the cannonfire occasionally making the ground explode into huge chunks? Try to avoid those.

MEDICAL

As always, wounded soldiers require assistance. The medical tent has a steady supply of the wounded, many with injuries from cannonfire, where limbs have been blown off almost in their entirety, and blood gushes readily from damaged major arteries. Act quick, and don't be afraid to, uh, amputate. Nobody else is.

STEALTH

There is reason to believe some Regency spies are undercover as French officers, and intend to kill either Kellerman or Dumouriez. Stay near the generals and protect them... without letting on. Capturing the spies alive would be a serious boon for COST, so if you could manage not to kill the spy, please? ...Please?

INFORMATION is worth its weight in gold

The way these battles work is reliant on the generals sending information down to their troops from the hills they're using to overlook the fighting. Fast riders or runners are essential for this task, and it affords you an opportunity to be near either general should you need to protect them against spying. Or maybe the runners are the spies? Who knows. Regardless, try to preserve the flow of information, and fix any tangles that may appear. If a runner with vital orders gets attacked, back them up; if they get killed, replace them; if they disappear… figure out what happened?

cannon killer squad

For the fast, stealthy, and / or magically gifted, Takatora has set up a 'Cannon-killer' plan, intending to weaken Prussian artillery through magic, speed, and the application of giant hammers. It's risky-- you'll have to get pretty close to the Prussian lines-- but it's worthwhile if you can weaken them even a little.

I'm going down I'm yelling timber

At some point late in the day, just when the worst of the rain has finally stopped, Prussian artillery finally gets aim good enough to send a volley of cannonballs straight at the windmill and farmhouse on the hill. There's a reason this strategy was considered a bold move; stationary targets are never safe in wartime. The windmill comes down in an explosive crash, and the farmhouse begins to collapse. Were you caught in the crossfire? Are you coming to pull bodies out of the rubble? Do what you can to recoup from this loss.

MORALE

When all else fails, keep spirits high. This battle will be impossible without enthusiastic troops committed to the cause. Give rousing speeches! Inspire people! Sing a song! Do whatever you need to.

read the valmy setting infopage

NAV NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

[lonelywar]

He gives her no answer to this. Truth be told, he didn't know if he had been properly debriefed. Apparently there was a hole in his memory, and whatever information COST deigned give them upon their installation to its numbers might've been contained therein. For now, he belatedly attempted to put together the pieces.

Her mistrust was valid, though. Ashitaka did not believe he was lying. He did not come to visit her in captivity with an intention to hurt her, though he knew if some situation necessitated it—if she slipped her bonds and attacked, or something of the like—he would. That was what war was to him, or at least a small facet of it.

The term line brings to mind what the commander had told him, information of blood traitors. That they would target not only you but your entire family, your ancestors and your descendants. It was hard to believe, but he found more and more he was not in a position to doubt anything he was told. As it was, it was a powerful motivator. He could sense no doubts in her statements.

"Is Lemuria the Empire you serve, then?"

[agogenpc]

"The capital. The empire is all. We stand on its soil now." She says this with pride, her chest puffing out, a sharp grin forming under her blindfold. "The Empire, the Regency as they've called it for the last eighth-kalpa, is the largest spanning sovereignty in all creation. It is an honor to serve."

"Tal-Viero is the best leader its had since Kuon. He united the military and cleaned out the weak buerocrats. He secured Kuon's line! He raised up the crosslands, opened zygote classification, brokered peace with--" She pauses; this word is always hard for her to pronounce, "Thish, and signed the Winhoek Accord. He will go down in history-- he already has."

[lonelywar]

He feels as though his understanding of kingdoms and empires doesn't apply as directly to what she means. It was a vein of thought that continued from his conversation with the commander, of that they faced an enemy that could infiltrate not only locations but times, routing enemies even before they were born. He knew that the land that they faced battle in now was a place called France, but this Empire—this Regency—would see all of it as their dominion, the full stretch of land and time. The full width and breadth of it was something outside his ken, but he did his best to keep up with her words.

"He certainly sounds like a man with great vision." Regardless of what he might think of it, given all of the facts, he didn't think that could be argued. But man with great vision of perceived optimal futures overlooked the broken paths they traveled to arrive there.

He knows asking specifics of all of the pieces she outlined might be not entirely worth his time; he doubts he would very well understand them. He takes a different avenue of questioning. "Your Empire, was it in decline before Tal-Viero took control? Why is it that he, and by extension yourself and others of the Regency, are so active now?"

It's what he needed to know the most. He knew why COST fought, or why they said they did. For what reason, then, did the Regency do what it did?

[agogenpc]

Xici shrugs and groans; she'd roll her eyes if they weren't covered. "The colonies were always discontent. They wanted more and more each eighth-kalpa. Better tax rates. More exports. Fewer embargoes. Fully-automated mines. Full citizenship. A parliament. Tal-Viero only straighten out their expecations, realigned the treaties, but they cried and whined, treason, tyranny!"

She cocks her head to the side. "It is hard to say when it all began. You know there is time travel involved, fool." But it's said more softly than before. He's either gaining her affection, her interest... or she's just tired.

Tired and waiting for death.

"I was decanted after Tal-Viero's ascention. But I have heard things were... stagnating. Not declining, but... ours is the empire to end all empires. Why should we ever do anything but expand?"

[lonelywar]

Ashitaka is not well-tutored in the ways of politics. The village of his birth had been completely cut off from the outside world, by necessity for fear that they might be put to the sword entirely if they were discovered. He had only seen glimpses of it in the conflict that lie between Irontown and the armies of Lord Asano. So he might not understand all of what Xici says, but he saw the double-shadow of what she decried and what might have been happening from those colonies' eyes. A desire for higher freedoms and more liberties, stamped down by authoritative control. He might disagree with her, but he keeps his disagreements to himself. With the level of adoration she had for her master, she would not be open to such things.

He seems unaffected by her insults. "Even so." Even if one obtained the ability to go back, there must be a point that inspired such methods. It just become a little more tangled and harder to pick out.

She could not see it, but there was a tenseness to the line of Ashitaka's mouth at her response; it was because what she said was something he had expected, and as it was presented, he felt a dull resignation. It was a folly of man he had seen manifest many times: the simple desire for what was beyond reach, the inability to be content with what was close at hand. It was not always bad. Sometimes it stemmed from a desire to help those who needed it, as Eboshi did. But in her reaching she had trespassed upon the sacred realm of the gods, and much and more strife had been born from that. Ashitaka bore one of the ripples of that conflict upon his body, tangled with his soul: a demon's mark that hungered for his life.

A breath escapes him in a short, unintended sigh, and he nods. "I see." His voice is grim. "So you are... bringing unruly colonies into line, then? Bringing to them the glory of your empire?"

He still doesn't understand how past lands could be considered new territories. Maybe he's misunderstanding.

"I simply want to know what your goals are, for no one but myself. I want to understand."

[agogenpc]

"Yes, precisely." So he's not a complete fool. Colonies are colonies, after all; they ought to be grateful for the opportunity to join the Tranquil Empire, the Regency, and leave it a that.

"And my goal is to serve their purpose, any way I can." Loyal to the end. She wants to rise in the ranks, to flourish, to serve. Those dreams are dead now, as she soon will be, but... she will not betray them in death.

[lonelywar]

Lofty goals that might even be considered noble through certain eyes, focused by a specific personal lens. To tell the truth, he didn't know enough to make a judgment for himself. He only knew what COST had told him and what she tells him now. Perhaps the Empire that the Regency represented was great, but it would most likely not justify what they were doing. Those details were often ignored.

Ashitaka is silent for a moment before he nods. She couldn't see it, but he was coming to the end of his personal questioning, and he wasn't particularly liking what he was ending up with.

He has one more pertinent one, though. "It's clear to me that you have no doubts." His neutral tone of voice would allow one to interpret it as a compliment. "Why? Why is it that you fight so much for this cause? Is it because of what it means for you and your family, or is it more than that?"

[agogenpc]

"All of it."

Her answer is immediate, without thought.

"Because of my line-- my... family, as you say. Because the world, all worlds, are better and stronger under the Regency's rule. Because peace is a cause worth fighting for, not fighting against." She says it like she's said it a thousand times before, not even really thinking about her rational. In the training camps she went to, they would repeat their reasoning at the beginning and end of each day. Hers were always some of the best. "Because it is what I was made for."

[lonelywar]

No one ever sees themselves as the villain. The fire that self-justification sparked was a fierce one, and its light was blinding enough to ward off the shadowy spectres of doubt. He doesn't argue, for there is no arguing with the dedication she represents. If anything, he respects her for it. His own position is so different, to try his hardest to maintain his position as onlooker so he could himself weigh what he saw and heard.

She is only a very small piece in this, as he is, but he feels as though he understands just a bit more.

Ashitaka stands without a word. He thinks to leave, just for a moment, but it seemed wrong to do so in such a way. Instead he looks around, stepping to the fringes of the tent. A moment later he approaches where she is bound, speaking softly, "Here." He presses something into her hands: a cup. "It's water. As thanks for speaking to me with such honesty."

Regardless of whether or not she takes it, he retreats again, thinking that there was just one last thing he wanted to ask. "If you would answer one more question," he says, "what is your name?"

Her fate, from his perspective, was grim, but he would carry it with him.

[agogenpc]

She doesn't take the water, but regrets it when he asks for her name. It's something to be remembered by, and she desperately wants to be remembered. An odd kink in the methods the retrocasters' use of retroactive termination; sometimes, you were remembered, even if you ceded from existence entirely. Matter could be moved through time, but memory, it seemed, was far more fickle.

Xici takes a breath, and speaks in a clear, high voice, as though this is her last testament. It may well be. "I am Tamomarr Xici of Little Hama Street, known as Little Xici; forty-seventh of the line of Tamo and Marr; issue of the dame Tamomarr Xuu and the sire Tamomarr Ise; who attained the rank of Victor-Adulate first among my catch; of the Order of Tranquil Preservation and Safety Without Fear; of the Legion of Unseen Movement; blessed of the Watcher and admiring of the Hunter." It's not just her name, it's her title, her rank, her religion, her family. Everything she holds dear to her. Everything she wishes to be remembered by.

"When I am gone, I would be... appreciative... if you would dedicate something for me. I do not know if you follow the Great Watcher, but I will have no body to give to Her. Someone must give something. A song, or a dance, a game, a riddle... whatever you think if appropriate."

[lonelywar]

He accepts her choice, setting the water away.

He has returned to her when she answers, and he pays careful attention. Many of the terms were strange, down to the very construction of their syllables, but he memorizes what he can. The technology of it might still seem like magic to him, but he knew the capabilities of what COST had given him; he records what she says, so he might have a record of it. Perhaps he would write down a transcript later (best he could), just as his trust with this magical technology was not quite as advanced as it was.

Ashitaka senses the feeling, the devotion behind the words, less an identity and more of a creed. It is odd to hold, as he was someone who by necessity had had to leave behind everything except his own name. He nods, though she could not see it. "I will not forget you, Little Xici. You have my word."

He doesn't know what the Great Watcher might be, but he has dealt and spoken with gods. In a way, he was grateful to see someone still reverent. It seemed the least he could do. "How do I make this dedication so that the Great Watcher will know?"

[agogenpc]

Humor creeps into Xici's voice, even if it's a little morbid. "The Watcher... watches," she says. "She will know. Dedicate... something to me. Whatever you think fitting. You shall be my final judge."

She bows her head, not really reverent or respectful, but accepting. This is her fate. A boy she doesn't know will say her last regards to the Watcher, dedicate her funerary gift. It is what she deserves for failure, possibly more than she deserves.

[lonelywar]

The Watcher sounds more to him like the great spirit of the forest, an entity more wide-reaching and powerful than the minor gods that led their beasts throughout the wilds of the forest and the mountains. Greater still, that it didn't seem to matter where he was. That simply made it easier. "I will do this for you."

He stands there for a moment, perched on the precipice of social force of habit. But what do you say in farewell to someone destined to die? His mind was blank, and he felt some shame for it. It just didn't seem something he was fit to do.

She accepted her fate, so he did as well, simply turning to leave while carrying her dying wish along with him.