08-01-2018, 10:00 AM
Loyalty
Loyalty was a bit of a touchy subject for Atbash, believe it or not. The she-cat had always believed in loyalty and believed it was the most important thing to have, but after her brother started to betray the family, she started to lose that belief. Atbash had always been loyal to her family as a whole, as well as the King (despite not knowing him). It was obvious: remain loyal to the King and your System and everything would be fine. And yet Caesar did not seem to grasp that concept - at least not in the sense to the King. By now, the rumor of Caesar being this all-powerful being that would rip a Dimension to shreds had spread throughout the Dimension and everybody was avoiding the Cipher System. Atbash didn't particularly mind too much, considering she wasn't used to being noticed anyway, due to being a female in the Seventh Tier. Caesar, however, was clearly upset and Atbash couldn't bring herself to sway her trust in him.
However, after they got exiled, Atbash couldn't help but feel betrayed by her brother's actions. He committed treason, he was lucky they weren't outright killed. Despite what it may seem, Atbash still believed the King had a right to do what he did, despite Caesar's preaching. Atbash believed what her brother did was outright wrong and wanted to stop trusting him, but she couldn't. He was family. Family was supposed to be loyal and be there for one another, but Atbash couldn't help but feel hurt and betrayed by what happened. No matter how many times Atbash wanted to confront Caesar and tell him he was being ridiculous, she couldn't. Was she afraid of him? A little bit, but she was mostly afraid of losing his trust and loyalty. Being a female meant a lot of things could go wrong and she needed somebody to protect her, and although Vigenere had training, he had a tendency to sneak off to see his girlfriend often.
Atbash was shocked whenever she started to hear what Caesar was planning, and if Vigenere hadn't agreed to the plan at first, she wouldn't have, either. But the eldest brother wanted revenge against the King's Guard, which was understandable, she supposed; they did kick him out rather unfairly. After all, how was he supposed to know of Caesar's plan to attack the Shaman? He couldn't, but the Guard refused to believe him and cast him out with the rest of his System. That was another reason to hate and distrust Caesar, and yet Atbash still couldn't find herself doing so. So she started plotting with her brothers, despite all signs pointing in bad directions at this. If both of her brothers were down with murdering the King, then... so would she. She almost felt like she had to.
But then one day Vigenere came up to her and started explaining that they could return to normal, albeit without Caesar. His girlfriend was the Princess, so of course she had convinced the King to let them return to the Seventh Tier. It was reasonable that Caesar could not return, considering how much of a threat he was, and Atbash felt relieved hearing this news. She practically almost cried the day Vigenere told her that, overwhelmingly happy that they had a chance at going back home. But of course once Caesar heard that news, he was absolutely pissed. The youngest sibling had started to claim they were betraying him, and Vigenere shot back how he should be happy for them being able to have a chance to be normal again. And Atbash believed Vigenere's words, but at the same time, she felt sorry for Caesar. After all, it was only a couple of days before they started the plan, and his biggest supporters were pulling out of the plan just as it was about to happen. But nothing could change how horrible Caesar's plan was.
Even after the event happened and they escaped the Dimension, Caesar still spouted about how they betrayed him, not the other way around. Vigenere had less injuries than her, and was the one to snap back at him, but even if she hadn't gotten a lot of wounds, Atbash wasn't sure if she could talk to Caesar again. Everything he did to her hurt, and not just physically. Atbash felt horrified by her youngest brother's actions, and in fact, she wanted to throw up over it. What he did was just not right, even if their Dimension's society was horrible. It was still their home, they had been born and raised there. And yet Caesar still felt hatred towards the King and his Court over some silly rumor that at this point had come true, but Atbash was convinced that if he never snuck into the Court Meeting, Caesar would have never heard of this and this rumor would never have started, and everything would be normal.
So how did Atbash feel about loyalty, being on Earth and not stuck between Dimensions? It was still a finicky subject for her, and she was afraid to admit she was loyal to Snowbound. Mostly because she still felt loyalty towards her family, though it was mostly Vigenere rather than Caesar by now. Atbash was loyal to Snowbound of course; she couldn't be leader without being loyal to her tribe, but if she had to choose between him and Snowbound, she... would probably choose Vigenere. Family was always first. Snowbound was like a family to her, but blood relatives were stronger. Atbash loved everybody in Snowbound, and she was glad she was here and leading them. But nothing would change how she wanted to be with Vigenere and how loyal she was to him. Some would say she didn't have her own free will, and perhaps that is true: Atbash doesn't really know how to make decisions on her own, and perhaps that is because of Dimension FiveX with their corrupted views on women.
Atbash could never see people being loyal to her, considering how insecure she was over her leadership skills - or lack thereof, she supposed. And yet, here she was, leading Snowbound with people presumably loyal to her. After all, if they weren't loyal to her, why haven't they attempted to kill her yet? Sure, being a demon, actually dying wasn't possible, but without having possession or shapeshifting, she couldn't come back. Yeah, reincarnation was a thing, but she didn't want to live with wounds that killed her. Atbash found it almost funny that people were loyal to her. I'm a horrible leader. She always thought to herself. I barely know what I'm doing and rely on others' thoughts. And yet here she was, still going strong. It was funny, since Atbash would have never been able to reach this sort of power back home and the concept of people actually believing in her was insane. But nothing can change the present, so Atbash would have to get used to people actually listening to her, whether she believes she deserves it or not. She was their Hailcaller, after all.
Word Count: 1,203