Sunshine Applications (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunshineapps) wrote2014-03-08 09:51 pm
sunshineapps) wrote2014-03-08 09:51 pm
Entry tags:
Application Azkadellia
Name: Azkadellia Gale(?)
Canon: Tin Man
Journal:cleavagemonkeys (for which I’m only a little sorry)
Gender: Female
Age: twenty seven(ish?)
Canon History: Azkadellia was the elder princess of Oz, otherwise known as the Outer Zone (O.Z.). She and her younger sister were very close as children. One day while playing together, they came across a cave. When they entered, they found an ancient witch. The two girls held hands, clinging to one another for safety, but then DG panicked, letting go and running away. This left her sister at the witch’s mercy, and when Azkadellia emerged, she was never the same. She had been possessed, the witch in control of her body.
A prophecy existed about the two Ozian princesses. “The queen of the O.Z. had two lovely daughters she. One to darkness, she be drawn. One to light, she be shown. Double eclipse it is foreseen. Dark meets light in the stillness between. But only one, and one alone, can hold the emerald and take the throne.” Reciting this prophecy, Azkadellia killed her sister, strangling her with a dark mist of some sort.
Their mother revived DG but sent her away to Earth, burying an empty coffin in a grave marked for her younger daughter. Azkadellia believed her sister dead.
She spent years establishing herself in Oz. She learned when the foretold eclipse would be, and set about preparing. Her master plan involved repurposing a machine meant to intensify sunlight and extend the growing season. She harvested the brain of its inventor, leaving him a shell without most of his memories. She planned on using a combination of the machine and the eclipse to bring perpetual darkness to the land, so that she would never again have to worry about being defeated by the magic of light.
Unfortunately, they found a source of this powerful magic, a girl living on Earth, and attempts to capture or kill her led to the worst possible outcome: DG returned to the O.Z. using the same transportation storm that Azkadellia’s soldiers summoned to reach her in the first place.
In an echo of Dorothy Gale’s journey across Oz, Azkadellia’s sister acquired allies. They worked together to evade Azkadellia’s Longcoats. She captured them once, but her sister escaped. Xora, the witch’s oldest and dearest friend, the monkey whose mark was right in the center of her chest, was killed when following them. Eventually DG got her hands on the emerald, but Azkadellia had found her by then, and she was ready. She took it from her younger sister, returning to the palace in preparation for the eclipse.
DG and her companions staged an attack on the castle as a diversion, and DG confronted Azkadellia as the eclipse darkened the sky and the emerald’s power was harnessed. She begged her elder sister to reach out, to take her hand. Azkadellia eventually managed to overcome the witch long enough to grasp DG's hand, and the witch was pulled from her body as their light magic combined. She melted on the platform, and everyone waited to see if light would return to the land. Azkadellia's reunion with her family was tentative, but there is something there to be rebuilt.
Canon Abilities/Powers: Magic: Whether referring to the princess trapped within her own body or the wicked witch possessing her, Azkadellia’s always had a talent for it. She used to practice control by levitating and spinning a small doll. She was very good at combining her power with her sister’s so that they were much more powerful than either would have been separately. Azkadellia’s skills were rather limited before the witch’s possession, as she had not had time to learn as much as she had the potential for.
While possessed, she gained the power to summon multiple flying monkeys, to suck the life from other people, to strangle people with a dark mist, to summon windstorms for the purpose of travel or make it rain without any visible effort. She can shrink people to much smaller than their usual size, and transport them magically.
The queen, Azkadellia’s mother, was shown as having the power to do the opposite of this life-sucking, pouring some of her own life into DG. Her hair went grey and her daughter woke up. This suggests that Azkadellia would eventually have the potential for the same.
Sunshineverse History: Azkadellia is the elder daughter of the Snow daimyo. She and her sister both had the capacity to become powerful kunoichi, and when they were younger, Azkadellia helped her sister train in basic chakra control techniques with their personal tutor. They The two girls were very close, always exploring and going on adventures together.
One day shortly after Azkadellia made genin, her sister heard someone crying for help, leading Azkadellia to the source of the sound. In a cave of ice and stone, they found someone. Old, terrifying, and presumably powerful though their opponent was, Azkadellia insisted that if they stayed together, nothing could defeat them. Unfortunately, her sister panicked and ran. This left Azkadellia at the mercy of the only-seemingly decrepit old kunoichi in the cave. By the time she emerged, she’d been curse sealed and was a new vessel for “The Witch of the West,” a formerly notorious kunoichi from Yugakure whose real name was not widely known.
The witch, a Jashinist, wanted to take power over Yukigakure, using its citizens for her own purposes and in search of the crystal that was the key to her latest plans. To this end, Azkadellia attempted to kill her sister. She thought she’d succeeded. Their mother spirited the girl out of the country and left the crystal inaccessible to any but her youngest. Azkadellia has locked up her mother and ruled the country with an iron fist for a decade and a half. She interrogated, tortured, and used memory-stealing and mind-wiping jutsus on her citizens. She performed Jashinist rituals to suck the life out of anyone who crossed or failed her. Azkadellia forced scientists to come up with modifications for the chakra armor, creating personal prisons for shinobi that suppressed rather than enhanced their chakra. Sometimes she filmed the atrocities committed by herself and her soldiers, leaving these films perpetually playing within view of the prisoner upon whom they would have the most emotional impact. She rules through fear, and her threats are never unfounded.
Having brought the country mostly to heel, all of her focus now rests on quashing the last shreds of resistance while searching for the crystal.
Sunshineverse Abilities/Powers: Her ability to suck the life out of people is a Jashinism based ability, usable only by the witch and not by the princess unpossessed. She has dual elemental affinities, wind and water, which makes her very well able to handle weather. Most of her signature jutsu revolve around this. Azkadellia still has the ability to manipulate precipitation through jutsu. She can also use windstorms, small tornadoes, for short-range transportation purposes, though not for long range travel. She can also give dark clouds solid form, using them for strangle attacks or other physical blows.
As a child, Azkadellia was very good at teamwork and at working in a pair. Now, it will be difficult for mutual trust to be established to bring that back into play, and certainly such a union is not possible for the witch.
Azkadellia’s skill as a ninja is very heavily ninjutsu based, with some genjutsu talent and excellent chakra control. Her taijutsu is her weakest point.
Appearance: tattoos for summons on her chest, curse seal between her shoulderblades (usually covered by her hair), frequently wearing armor (presumably chakra armor). Seals also appear along her neck and down toward her stomach, weaving in between her summons tattoos, when she uses the Jashinist ritual that allows her to suck a person’s life from them.
Personality: This is where things get a little complicated. Because Azkadellia is possessed by the witch, her current personality is ruthless, ambitious, and tempestuous. She uses pain and fear as motivators, is perfectly willing to attack families and take hostages to get her way, and has absolutely no tolerance for resistance. Azkadellia believes in harnessing people to her purpose. If that entails bribery, threats, meddling with their minds, stealing their knowledge, or holding them prisoner for torture until they bend to her will, so be it. No excuse is good enough for failure, and any shred of remorse she feels for summary executions is secondhand, through the princess whose body she’s stolen. She does not love anyone except her monkeys. One in particular, Xora, she considers her oldest friend. The witch does have some respect and appreciation for those who are useful to her, but it vanishes as soon as their shortcomings are made clear.
The real Azkadellia, underneath the witch, still exists. She is aware, sometimes acutely and sometimes dimly, of the uses her body is put to. She protests and tries to fight on occasion, but it has lasted so long that she has little hope, if any, left. Occasionally the witch seems to be talking to herself, during the rare times Azkadellia makes it close enough to the surface to make herself heard. Azkadellia lost all the years that should have been spent growing up as a mute witness to the pain of those around her. She still cares about her family and her homeland, but she’s fragile and very close to broken. Her sense of self needs rebuilding as much as her country does.
If freed from the witch, Azkadellia will remember what she’s done all these years. She will remember the people that she’s harmed, the damage she’s caused. The adjustment to her longed for freedom will also bring a sense of guilt and horror at her own actions, but the witch has also had an impact upon her primary victim. Azkadellia will be unspeakably grateful to have her mind to herself (except for the memories and echoes), but she may not trust herself at first. She may worry that her country should be in anyone’s hands but hers. She may be right.
Azkadellia is ambitious, and she wants to retain control even if a part of her is appalled by her actions over the past fifteen years. She’d have to fight against a populace she’s terrorized to get her position back, but she’d have to fight against herself to give it up.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Mental, emotional, and physical. This can be a bullet point explanation.
Strengths (witch)
-only emotionally attached to her summons and her goals (difficult to manipulate)
-ninjutsu and summoning
-conviction
-good at manipulation (usually through fear)
-Jashinism boosts her power
Weaknesses (witch)
-inflexible
-has a temper
-sometimes underestimates the bonds between people
-taijutsu
Strengths (princess)
-love (for her family, country, and people)
-chakra capacity and control
-knack for teaching (ninjutsu and chakra control)
-perseverance and stubbornness
Double-edged (princess)
-ambition; it gives her something to strive for now, but she can be too driven by it
Weaknesses (princess)
-guilt
-shaky sense of self
-hesitance and feeling ill at ease in the world
-taijutsu
-will have to renegotiate summons contracts and relearn how to fight
Village Affiliation: Yukigakure (currently possessed by a former resident of Yugakure)
Rank: Jounin/Village Leader (Note: when her curse seal is broken, she will probably have trouble fighting effectively at jounin level until retraining due to inexperience being the one controlling her chakra and jutsu. Her power is jounin level, but her experience is half-vicarious.)
Prose sample: Positions in Azkadellia’s ranks have always been rather precarious, and promotions are never optional. Nor would demotions be, if she offered any of those. The consequence of failure is always a more permanent one, which is why only the more fearless and ambitious, or foolhardy, of her forces ever reveal their true skills. Azkadellia can tell when the mission reports are lies. Her shinobi sometimes downplay their successes as well as their failures, claiming the enemies were fewer, their ranks lower, when they return unscathed. It’s a very shinobi-like quality to have, a ruthless self preservation and stealthiness that she admires and finds rather charming… just so long as she can harness it. Azkadellia smiles as she reads through the latest in a string of lackluster reports, making a note to recommend the chuunin for jounin testing. He’ll pass the exam; he won’t be given a choice in the matter.
You need to stop with the harsher punishments before they turn on you.
The witch frowns at the unwelcome intrusion. The princess is feeling strong today, it seems. She answers softly aloud, “They’ll do no such thing. Every member of my forces can be managed with the proper application of leverage.”
And what do you do when you can’t feed and pay them properly? The city’s being run into the ground. Trade has broken down, and no one save the very few with genuine loyalty and admiration think it’s in their best interests.
We can manage anyone in the village individually. But all together? The princess doesn’t consider use of the word ‘we’ to be a slip. She’s been inside her body for the past decade and a half, regardless of who was more in control of it. And if things go wrong, she’ll suffer the consequences just as much.
“Everything is well in hand. It will be fine.” In the hallway, she can hear a guard warn someone not to disturb her. The instruction to wait rather than return later means that whoever is there has a high security clearance. She pulls her attention away for a moment to sense the newcomer’s chakra, then nods. It doesn’t matter if he overhears, but she shouldn’t keep him waiting long.
The princess interrupts this train of thought sharply, drawing the witch back into conversation. What about the people? Will they be fine?
“They’ll be taken care of.” With that, the witch gives the equivalent of a mental shove to the constant presence in her head, pushing the foolish girl once again to the back of her mind. It is food for thought, though. Perhaps the girl has a point. It might be time to see what can be done about reestablishing trade routes, if such a thing can be done without inviting too much scrutiny. Her first priority has never been financial gain.
“Come in,” she calls, nodding brusquely in return of the bows from her guards and general once they enter her office. “Good news, I hope?” It isn’t, though. Her most trusted jounin is hovering, like a nervous child. Azkadellia rises to her feet, walking gracefully around the desk. “You made me a promise,” she says very calmly. “Where is my crystal? All of this is meaningless without it.”
He shakes his head. “Another false lead. We’ll get it next time, I swear.”
She sighs. “You’ve sworn enough oaths. I know you tried your best.” Azkadellia steps closer, pleased that he at least meets her eyes rather than looking down or trying to turn his face away. The seal that is usually invisible, unlike her summons or her curse seal, darkens on the skin of her neck and down her arms. She watches him swallow. He knows what it means, having received his own promotion the same way. Azkadellia keeps this ritual prepared for easy use. Leaning forward, she breathes in. The guards in the room look on silently as the man’s life hovers in midair between him and Azkadellia, and then he collapses to the ground. Another sacrifice to Jashin, the best possible end for one who has served her well while he was able.
Azkadellia shudders in pleasure, hand on her chest, at the sensation. It takes a second for her to regain composure, here in a room where no one would attack her, but once she does, she turns to one of the bystanders. “You’ve been promoted,” she informs him matter of factly. “Your mission parameters are the same as your predecessor’s. Find it. I feel our information networks have not been used as thoroughly as they ought to be.”
Bracket sample: [Azkadellia clears her throat, and when she speaks, it’s in her clearest and kindest voice. Sometimes people find that even more unsettling.] Good afternoon, citizens of Yukigakure. I understand that Resistance fighters to the north of the city made a raid on one of our supply centers today. I apologize for not stopping these malcontented troublemakers sooner, but be assured they will not elude pursuit for long.
They have stolen food from honest citizens of the city, holding their own interests above your well-being. They do not have your best interests at heart. In light of the shortage many of you are likely facing, a team will be distributing food to those affected. Should anyone have information to share with these shinobi with regard to the incursion, your candor will be duly rewarded. [It’s obvious enough that the Resistance is receiving inside help. The team she sends will be one of her best and most trusted, an interrogation team very skilled at ferreting out secrets. Sharing information freely will be rewarded, it’s true, but refusing to share it will be rewarded even more swiftly, and the consequences permanent.]
Missive Sample: I have an addition to your mission parameters. It has been brought to my attention that a portion of our economic downturn might remedied through outside trade. I want you to see which countries might be willing to open negotiations. These options should be ranked in order of which nations are least likely to interfere in our internal affairs, with the reasoning behind your evaluations. I will decide who to contact upon receiving your report. Signal when you have new information for me, and it will be picked up in the appropriate manner. Do not write back until the messenger arrives.
Your family is well cared for, and your husband sends his regards.
Canon: Tin Man
Journal:
cleavagemonkeys (for which I’m only a little sorry)Gender: Female
Age: twenty seven(ish?)
Canon History: Azkadellia was the elder princess of Oz, otherwise known as the Outer Zone (O.Z.). She and her younger sister were very close as children. One day while playing together, they came across a cave. When they entered, they found an ancient witch. The two girls held hands, clinging to one another for safety, but then DG panicked, letting go and running away. This left her sister at the witch’s mercy, and when Azkadellia emerged, she was never the same. She had been possessed, the witch in control of her body.
A prophecy existed about the two Ozian princesses. “The queen of the O.Z. had two lovely daughters she. One to darkness, she be drawn. One to light, she be shown. Double eclipse it is foreseen. Dark meets light in the stillness between. But only one, and one alone, can hold the emerald and take the throne.” Reciting this prophecy, Azkadellia killed her sister, strangling her with a dark mist of some sort.
Their mother revived DG but sent her away to Earth, burying an empty coffin in a grave marked for her younger daughter. Azkadellia believed her sister dead.
She spent years establishing herself in Oz. She learned when the foretold eclipse would be, and set about preparing. Her master plan involved repurposing a machine meant to intensify sunlight and extend the growing season. She harvested the brain of its inventor, leaving him a shell without most of his memories. She planned on using a combination of the machine and the eclipse to bring perpetual darkness to the land, so that she would never again have to worry about being defeated by the magic of light.
Unfortunately, they found a source of this powerful magic, a girl living on Earth, and attempts to capture or kill her led to the worst possible outcome: DG returned to the O.Z. using the same transportation storm that Azkadellia’s soldiers summoned to reach her in the first place.
In an echo of Dorothy Gale’s journey across Oz, Azkadellia’s sister acquired allies. They worked together to evade Azkadellia’s Longcoats. She captured them once, but her sister escaped. Xora, the witch’s oldest and dearest friend, the monkey whose mark was right in the center of her chest, was killed when following them. Eventually DG got her hands on the emerald, but Azkadellia had found her by then, and she was ready. She took it from her younger sister, returning to the palace in preparation for the eclipse.
DG and her companions staged an attack on the castle as a diversion, and DG confronted Azkadellia as the eclipse darkened the sky and the emerald’s power was harnessed. She begged her elder sister to reach out, to take her hand. Azkadellia eventually managed to overcome the witch long enough to grasp DG's hand, and the witch was pulled from her body as their light magic combined. She melted on the platform, and everyone waited to see if light would return to the land. Azkadellia's reunion with her family was tentative, but there is something there to be rebuilt.
Canon Abilities/Powers: Magic: Whether referring to the princess trapped within her own body or the wicked witch possessing her, Azkadellia’s always had a talent for it. She used to practice control by levitating and spinning a small doll. She was very good at combining her power with her sister’s so that they were much more powerful than either would have been separately. Azkadellia’s skills were rather limited before the witch’s possession, as she had not had time to learn as much as she had the potential for.
While possessed, she gained the power to summon multiple flying monkeys, to suck the life from other people, to strangle people with a dark mist, to summon windstorms for the purpose of travel or make it rain without any visible effort. She can shrink people to much smaller than their usual size, and transport them magically.
The queen, Azkadellia’s mother, was shown as having the power to do the opposite of this life-sucking, pouring some of her own life into DG. Her hair went grey and her daughter woke up. This suggests that Azkadellia would eventually have the potential for the same.
Sunshineverse History: Azkadellia is the elder daughter of the Snow daimyo. She and her sister both had the capacity to become powerful kunoichi, and when they were younger, Azkadellia helped her sister train in basic chakra control techniques with their personal tutor. They The two girls were very close, always exploring and going on adventures together.
One day shortly after Azkadellia made genin, her sister heard someone crying for help, leading Azkadellia to the source of the sound. In a cave of ice and stone, they found someone. Old, terrifying, and presumably powerful though their opponent was, Azkadellia insisted that if they stayed together, nothing could defeat them. Unfortunately, her sister panicked and ran. This left Azkadellia at the mercy of the only-seemingly decrepit old kunoichi in the cave. By the time she emerged, she’d been curse sealed and was a new vessel for “The Witch of the West,” a formerly notorious kunoichi from Yugakure whose real name was not widely known.
The witch, a Jashinist, wanted to take power over Yukigakure, using its citizens for her own purposes and in search of the crystal that was the key to her latest plans. To this end, Azkadellia attempted to kill her sister. She thought she’d succeeded. Their mother spirited the girl out of the country and left the crystal inaccessible to any but her youngest. Azkadellia has locked up her mother and ruled the country with an iron fist for a decade and a half. She interrogated, tortured, and used memory-stealing and mind-wiping jutsus on her citizens. She performed Jashinist rituals to suck the life out of anyone who crossed or failed her. Azkadellia forced scientists to come up with modifications for the chakra armor, creating personal prisons for shinobi that suppressed rather than enhanced their chakra. Sometimes she filmed the atrocities committed by herself and her soldiers, leaving these films perpetually playing within view of the prisoner upon whom they would have the most emotional impact. She rules through fear, and her threats are never unfounded.
Having brought the country mostly to heel, all of her focus now rests on quashing the last shreds of resistance while searching for the crystal.
Sunshineverse Abilities/Powers: Her ability to suck the life out of people is a Jashinism based ability, usable only by the witch and not by the princess unpossessed. She has dual elemental affinities, wind and water, which makes her very well able to handle weather. Most of her signature jutsu revolve around this. Azkadellia still has the ability to manipulate precipitation through jutsu. She can also use windstorms, small tornadoes, for short-range transportation purposes, though not for long range travel. She can also give dark clouds solid form, using them for strangle attacks or other physical blows.
As a child, Azkadellia was very good at teamwork and at working in a pair. Now, it will be difficult for mutual trust to be established to bring that back into play, and certainly such a union is not possible for the witch.
Azkadellia’s skill as a ninja is very heavily ninjutsu based, with some genjutsu talent and excellent chakra control. Her taijutsu is her weakest point.
Appearance: tattoos for summons on her chest, curse seal between her shoulderblades (usually covered by her hair), frequently wearing armor (presumably chakra armor). Seals also appear along her neck and down toward her stomach, weaving in between her summons tattoos, when she uses the Jashinist ritual that allows her to suck a person’s life from them.
Personality: This is where things get a little complicated. Because Azkadellia is possessed by the witch, her current personality is ruthless, ambitious, and tempestuous. She uses pain and fear as motivators, is perfectly willing to attack families and take hostages to get her way, and has absolutely no tolerance for resistance. Azkadellia believes in harnessing people to her purpose. If that entails bribery, threats, meddling with their minds, stealing their knowledge, or holding them prisoner for torture until they bend to her will, so be it. No excuse is good enough for failure, and any shred of remorse she feels for summary executions is secondhand, through the princess whose body she’s stolen. She does not love anyone except her monkeys. One in particular, Xora, she considers her oldest friend. The witch does have some respect and appreciation for those who are useful to her, but it vanishes as soon as their shortcomings are made clear.
The real Azkadellia, underneath the witch, still exists. She is aware, sometimes acutely and sometimes dimly, of the uses her body is put to. She protests and tries to fight on occasion, but it has lasted so long that she has little hope, if any, left. Occasionally the witch seems to be talking to herself, during the rare times Azkadellia makes it close enough to the surface to make herself heard. Azkadellia lost all the years that should have been spent growing up as a mute witness to the pain of those around her. She still cares about her family and her homeland, but she’s fragile and very close to broken. Her sense of self needs rebuilding as much as her country does.
If freed from the witch, Azkadellia will remember what she’s done all these years. She will remember the people that she’s harmed, the damage she’s caused. The adjustment to her longed for freedom will also bring a sense of guilt and horror at her own actions, but the witch has also had an impact upon her primary victim. Azkadellia will be unspeakably grateful to have her mind to herself (except for the memories and echoes), but she may not trust herself at first. She may worry that her country should be in anyone’s hands but hers. She may be right.
Azkadellia is ambitious, and she wants to retain control even if a part of her is appalled by her actions over the past fifteen years. She’d have to fight against a populace she’s terrorized to get her position back, but she’d have to fight against herself to give it up.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Mental, emotional, and physical. This can be a bullet point explanation.
Strengths (witch)
-only emotionally attached to her summons and her goals (difficult to manipulate)
-ninjutsu and summoning
-conviction
-good at manipulation (usually through fear)
-Jashinism boosts her power
Weaknesses (witch)
-inflexible
-has a temper
-sometimes underestimates the bonds between people
-taijutsu
Strengths (princess)
-love (for her family, country, and people)
-chakra capacity and control
-knack for teaching (ninjutsu and chakra control)
-perseverance and stubbornness
Double-edged (princess)
-ambition; it gives her something to strive for now, but she can be too driven by it
Weaknesses (princess)
-guilt
-shaky sense of self
-hesitance and feeling ill at ease in the world
-taijutsu
-will have to renegotiate summons contracts and relearn how to fight
Village Affiliation: Yukigakure (currently possessed by a former resident of Yugakure)
Rank: Jounin/Village Leader (Note: when her curse seal is broken, she will probably have trouble fighting effectively at jounin level until retraining due to inexperience being the one controlling her chakra and jutsu. Her power is jounin level, but her experience is half-vicarious.)
Prose sample: Positions in Azkadellia’s ranks have always been rather precarious, and promotions are never optional. Nor would demotions be, if she offered any of those. The consequence of failure is always a more permanent one, which is why only the more fearless and ambitious, or foolhardy, of her forces ever reveal their true skills. Azkadellia can tell when the mission reports are lies. Her shinobi sometimes downplay their successes as well as their failures, claiming the enemies were fewer, their ranks lower, when they return unscathed. It’s a very shinobi-like quality to have, a ruthless self preservation and stealthiness that she admires and finds rather charming… just so long as she can harness it. Azkadellia smiles as she reads through the latest in a string of lackluster reports, making a note to recommend the chuunin for jounin testing. He’ll pass the exam; he won’t be given a choice in the matter.
You need to stop with the harsher punishments before they turn on you.
The witch frowns at the unwelcome intrusion. The princess is feeling strong today, it seems. She answers softly aloud, “They’ll do no such thing. Every member of my forces can be managed with the proper application of leverage.”
And what do you do when you can’t feed and pay them properly? The city’s being run into the ground. Trade has broken down, and no one save the very few with genuine loyalty and admiration think it’s in their best interests.
We can manage anyone in the village individually. But all together? The princess doesn’t consider use of the word ‘we’ to be a slip. She’s been inside her body for the past decade and a half, regardless of who was more in control of it. And if things go wrong, she’ll suffer the consequences just as much.
“Everything is well in hand. It will be fine.” In the hallway, she can hear a guard warn someone not to disturb her. The instruction to wait rather than return later means that whoever is there has a high security clearance. She pulls her attention away for a moment to sense the newcomer’s chakra, then nods. It doesn’t matter if he overhears, but she shouldn’t keep him waiting long.
The princess interrupts this train of thought sharply, drawing the witch back into conversation. What about the people? Will they be fine?
“They’ll be taken care of.” With that, the witch gives the equivalent of a mental shove to the constant presence in her head, pushing the foolish girl once again to the back of her mind. It is food for thought, though. Perhaps the girl has a point. It might be time to see what can be done about reestablishing trade routes, if such a thing can be done without inviting too much scrutiny. Her first priority has never been financial gain.
“Come in,” she calls, nodding brusquely in return of the bows from her guards and general once they enter her office. “Good news, I hope?” It isn’t, though. Her most trusted jounin is hovering, like a nervous child. Azkadellia rises to her feet, walking gracefully around the desk. “You made me a promise,” she says very calmly. “Where is my crystal? All of this is meaningless without it.”
He shakes his head. “Another false lead. We’ll get it next time, I swear.”
She sighs. “You’ve sworn enough oaths. I know you tried your best.” Azkadellia steps closer, pleased that he at least meets her eyes rather than looking down or trying to turn his face away. The seal that is usually invisible, unlike her summons or her curse seal, darkens on the skin of her neck and down her arms. She watches him swallow. He knows what it means, having received his own promotion the same way. Azkadellia keeps this ritual prepared for easy use. Leaning forward, she breathes in. The guards in the room look on silently as the man’s life hovers in midair between him and Azkadellia, and then he collapses to the ground. Another sacrifice to Jashin, the best possible end for one who has served her well while he was able.
Azkadellia shudders in pleasure, hand on her chest, at the sensation. It takes a second for her to regain composure, here in a room where no one would attack her, but once she does, she turns to one of the bystanders. “You’ve been promoted,” she informs him matter of factly. “Your mission parameters are the same as your predecessor’s. Find it. I feel our information networks have not been used as thoroughly as they ought to be.”
Bracket sample: [Azkadellia clears her throat, and when she speaks, it’s in her clearest and kindest voice. Sometimes people find that even more unsettling.] Good afternoon, citizens of Yukigakure. I understand that Resistance fighters to the north of the city made a raid on one of our supply centers today. I apologize for not stopping these malcontented troublemakers sooner, but be assured they will not elude pursuit for long.
They have stolen food from honest citizens of the city, holding their own interests above your well-being. They do not have your best interests at heart. In light of the shortage many of you are likely facing, a team will be distributing food to those affected. Should anyone have information to share with these shinobi with regard to the incursion, your candor will be duly rewarded. [It’s obvious enough that the Resistance is receiving inside help. The team she sends will be one of her best and most trusted, an interrogation team very skilled at ferreting out secrets. Sharing information freely will be rewarded, it’s true, but refusing to share it will be rewarded even more swiftly, and the consequences permanent.]
Missive Sample: I have an addition to your mission parameters. It has been brought to my attention that a portion of our economic downturn might remedied through outside trade. I want you to see which countries might be willing to open negotiations. These options should be ranked in order of which nations are least likely to interfere in our internal affairs, with the reasoning behind your evaluations. I will decide who to contact upon receiving your report. Signal when you have new information for me, and it will be picked up in the appropriate manner. Do not write back until the messenger arrives.
Your family is well cared for, and your husband sends his regards.