Young Writers Society

Cloak And Dagger

The cloak is to conceal. The very fabric of the idea has been entrenched in our culture. A cloak hides things, a man, a plan, a dirty little scheme. The cloak is a metaphor as well, one that shows its petty use. A cloak is media, a cloak is a vote, a cloak is what covers your eyes and hides the truth.

Yet as it hides it also strikes. A cloak can hide not only you, but someone else. A cloak is cover a cloak is a dark cloudy night. A cloak is by which you trick someone, trick someone into thinking their wrong, into believing what they hear on the tabloid or the television. A cloak is a cloud of lies: it conceals the truth and strikes you with your own stupidity. Who deceives you by turning your own fears against you? A cloak.


The dagger is to strike, that is quite simple, but a dagger is also to hide. A dagger, indeed, kills the truth so it cannot be spoken. A dagger arcs it's way into the heart of righteousness and rips it out, and when that happens, there are only lies.

A dagger hides by striking, and strikes by hiding. A killer hides in the dark like a dagger hides in a heart, both waiting to come out, through hatred perhaps. Through love perhaps. Through misguidance? Most definitely.

Now you must become either the cloak or the dagger, two of a kind yet striving vehemently against each other. One strike starts a war as one strike delivers justice. The only question is...

Which comes first?







You are a cloak or a dagger, either with the government or against them. Your goal is to destroy the new rebellion against the state, or see it to victory.

The state is an enormous continent ruled by a contingency of so called "representatives." You can choose to begin wherever you want on the continent (You can make up your own locations and towns) But eventually you must come to the capitol.

As a rebellion member, you have bases and safe houses all across the land. You can practically walk the continent but while there is always a hole to scuttle into when in danger, you may end up revealing your hiding place and costing the alliance a safe haven. You have access to more than the government knows, but you must use them scarcely for fear of alerting the Contingency of your wealth. Finally, although you have many manipulative tools, you do not have control of the media. The Contingency has the public in its grasp and you simply do not have the capacity to take it from them.

As a Contingency official, you have abundant materials, embassies in certain cities but not in all, and a wealth of high quality but low variety weapons. The officials mostly keep to the capitol to keep hold of the public but daggers often visit border towns and farther places than the cloaks ever go. The Contingency has a vast net of security across the continent so cloaks can see whatever is happening anywhere at anytime save for a handful of back alleys and rooftops.


You must work without being found out to undermine one another through death or scheme. You must defend yourself as oncoming attacks either strike you dead, or murder the idea you stand for.

The Cloak

You are the schemer. You have the media in the palm of your hand. You can access the emotions of the people with your words, and you can turn their eyes towards your enemies with mere speeches. You are the man behind the scenes, you work so the daggers can slip in at night and butcher your victim. You control the cover up as the police take out the body. The hearts of the public may lie with you or against you depending on which side your on and you must work to sway them or keep them. The hearts of your enemies are in your hands, you must eliminate them or have them eliminate you.

The Dagger

You are a weapon. A weapon to end all weapons. You have life and death swaying on your left hip. You are the bell that tolls on a rainy day. You are the shadow that creeps up over the sleeping man. You are no mere tool to be used, you murder ideas for a living! Your goal is to take out specific targets the cloaks deem dangerous. Of course, there's really nothing they can do to control you, you could always turn the rebellion into to a slaughter, or the government for that matter.



Character Template:

Personality:

Role:

Appearance:

Strength:

Weakness:

Fear:

Allegiance (lies with whom?):

Anything else:

Daggers: @Paprika @Tortwag @Holofernes @Zhia

Cloaks: @Verser @15253 @happyslappy13 @KingLucifer






This story takes place in an alternate timeline. Much like yours, we boast an oligarchy, or rather a triumvirate who governs the continent. Mind you, these people are not at all evil and manipulative though they may have inadvertently caused a terrible loss to you or you may believe that they must die to stop this system of corruption that they unknowingly carry out each day. The choice is yours.

Weapons are in variety. Not just firearms, but daggers, swords, shields, crossbows. We have mastered the art of violence here and we have not only recovered these older weapons but bought them up to present date state of the art technology.

Finally, we have found others of which we cannot name. Some came on their own accord, others we found on nearby planets. They have all converged upon the Continent and this is where we find ourselves, on the Continent, fighting for and against the triumvirate.


Let the games begin.

Espadon - Choki, choki!

The shinning moon was out, enlightening the dark horizons with its silver gleam. Right below it, the ordered grass of a luxurious garden could be seen, its unmoving mass of green only troubled by the soft breeze of the evening. Only two trees in sight, with the front gate and its mansion.
Suddenly, a noise: the flapping wings of a lone crow as he floated away...
...No no no. As he flew away, that's more direct.
Espadon scrapped the word and replaced it by the other one. Yes, floated seemed too... Soft. And not fitting for his style. The teenager reluctantly put his crimson notepad away and looked at his watch: almost midnight. Time to move.
Espadon rose up, stared at the window one last time and directed himself towards the corridor, quiet as a shadow.

******

As usual, Espadon was to complete a simple objective. One political figure had said things that he or she wasn't supposed to say. He or she needed to be disposed of, and Espadon had been hired to do the job.
Classic scenario.
This time, it was Sherry Akspark, founder of the Akspark Corp. - famous for creating various weapons and items of all sorts – and recent member of the Contigency. In simple terms, she hadn't be able to keep her mouth shut, so someone was to shut it for her. The plans of her not so well-protected mansion had been given to Espadon, and he had all the time to study it, prepare his gear and fulfill his mission. Now, the boy was inside the place, and although it was too dark for him to see much of it, he could tell that it was quite vast. After a long walk through several corridors, the Dagger had found himself in a huge hall. A few guards were present, but they were too busy trying to catch up their hours of sleep that to assure the safety of their masters.
Yup. This Sherry was highly unaware of how the Contingency truly worked, wasn't she.
After a long detour thanks to which Espadon had remained unnoticed, the Dagger finally managed to reach the boss' personal room. Now came the delicate part.
The Dagger pulled out a pair of leather gloves from his pocket and softly put his hand on the door after putting them on. Slowly, silently, the door obeyed the boy's simple command: remain soundless while he was entering.
A window was in front of him, the bright light of the moon shining through. On Espadon's right, a set of curtains were hiding the view. But on his right was disposed a humongous bed, in which the distinct form of two entwined bodies could be seen.
"That's kinda cute."
Espadon scanned the room once more and found what he was looking for, just above the bed: a switch, most certainly the one supposed to alert the guards outside in case of trouble. The Dagger also knew that the room was completely soundproof once the door was closed, which was the reason why disposing of the switch was a priority. Accidents happen, after all.
The boy examined his belt in the dark and put a hand to his right holster. He pulled out his custom-made taser gun, took the time to aim and fired once. The switch received a powerful electric charge and was instantly destroyed. Satisfied, Espadon put away his taser gun and silently walked towards the window The couple hadn't woken up yet.
Perfect.
The Dagger pulled out his crimson notepad once more and added a few lines to little narration. A spark of inspiration struck him as he gazed at the moon.

Once there was a world in pain,
Locked in a never-ending night.
A Goddess had made it her domain,
Enjoying the eternal blackness with delight.
Lunaster, or so she was named,
Was Queen of the Albstones...

Espadon heard a sudden gasp. Looking up, he witnessed the half-naked couple staring right at him, panic in their eye. He stared back, slightly confused.
“Right. Assassination.”
“No, go on,” the Dagger began gently. “Keep sleeping, don't mind me. Wait, d'you have any rhymes with “stones”?”
The man put a hand under his pillow. Anticipating the move, Espadon threw away his pen and reached his taser gun. The moment the other was aiming, the Dagger had already fired, paralyzing the poor man, to his wife's horror.
“Huh. That happened.”
Espadon calmly walked towards the bed and picked up his pen. He then bowed before the startled woman.
“Hello, Miss Sherry Akspark. Call me Scissorex. I'm a Dagger. You can therefore easily guess what brings me to your quite adorable mansion.”
“A Dagger?” she repeated, shocked. “Here? But I… What have I done to–”
“I have no idea,” Espadon interrupted, “but that's not the part I care about. You've apparently done or said something to upset someone, and that someone has sent me to kill you. Thing is, your amazing husband here tried to fight back – which is perfectly normal, don't get me wrong –, so now I have to kill him as well. If you have any last wish, now's the time to share them with me.”
“P-please...” The woman started, her voice shaking. “I can give you anything you desire if you don't do this. Do consider my–”
“Lady, are you being serious?" Espadon interrupted, more harshly. "One, I'm already being very well paid. Two, I have no valid reason to back out now. Three, the only thing I desire right now is to become your grim reaper, and four, I may be young, but it's not the first time I witness a powerful person such as yourself become utterly pathetic once confronted against a Dagger like me. So if that's really all you have to say, I'm afraid I'll have to pierce your heart.”
Espadon pulled his taser gun and fired, paralyzing his target's body in the process.
“There. You won't feel much now. You still get to watch the process, though.”
With a gentle smile on his face, the Dagger put both of his hands behind his back and pulled out two scissor-shaped blades. The Cutsaigo Twins, his favorite weapons.
“Enjoy the afterlife. If you don't believe, enjoy the void.”
Espadon plunged his first blade in the man's chest, before thrusting the second one in Sherry Aksparks'. The boy quickly fell back, dodging the gush of blood that followed. He kept his eyes on the corpses until they completely collapsed on the bed like lifeless puppets.
...Puppet?
Espadon put away his Cutsaigos and took his notepad and pen again.

...Lunaster, or so she was named,
Was Queen of the Albstones,
The devious puppets that roamed the lands,
That carried her dreadful will
To keep the world plunged in the shadows.

“Yeah… Didn't find a rhyme, but that'll do. Time to go home.”
The Dagger put away his writing tools and was about to leave when he heard a something fall on the ground behind him. He immediately turned back, Cutsaigos in his hands. A long dagger was on the floor, next to a pair of feet he had not seen upon entering the room.
“Barefooted,” he noticed. “Can't be another Dagger, they don't do mistakes like that. Not enough distance for him to escape. He can't see me clearly, but I can detect his movements. He's finished”.
“I don't know who you are,” he said with a cold tone, “but you might want to surrender. I know you're there, and if you don't cooperate, It'll be my pleasure to be your grim reaper as well. Come out, or I'm coming for you.”
“W-wait, I'm coming, I'm coming!”
“A girl. She's panicked. Definitely not an assassin.”
A teenage girl indeed appeared from behind the curtains.
“Come closer. Don't try any kind of assault, or I will kill you.”
The girl shivered on the word “kill” and approached further. With the moonlight, Espadon could see a teenager with long brown hair falling down her back. She had a long black skirt along with a white T-shirt beneath a blue vest. She was standing still despite the tears running down her cheeks.
“About two years younger than me.”
“Why are you here?”
“Does it matter?!” the girl exploded. “My parents are dead, and you found me. I know you're going to kill me as well, so you might as well do it now.”
“Shut up.”
“Pa… Pardon?”
“I said: shut up. My task was to kill your mother. You have nothing to do with her. You weren't even suppose to witness her death.”
Espadon sighed, retrieving his casual persona.
“And now I traumatized you for life. Seriously, girl, what the heck are you doing here? And how come you have that dagger?”
The teenager stared at him.
“I wished to murder my parents.”
Espadon whistled.
“Interesting. And why's that?
Something in her eye changed. She looked… grimmer.
“Because I was nothing to them. Because I wanted to live my own life. Because I want to become a warrior.”
“You should've taken a gun, then.”
“Why? What's wrong with my dagger?”
Espadon smiled gently.
“Do you know what it means to kill with a blade in your hands?”
The boy put away his Cutsaigos and walked up to the girl's dagger. He picked it up and looked at her.
“You need to approach your target, with no fear, with no remorse...”
Espadon slowly walked towards the girl. Much to her surprise, she could not hear his steps. He had the gaze of a hunter, the gait of a wild cat.
He was a predator.
“...You need to plunge the blade in your target's body, and meet its dying gaze...”
The boy took the girl in her arms, putting the dagger against her throat. She had stopped breathing.
“...You need to remain in control as your target's blood meets your hand. And finally, you walk away, like a shadow among the others...”
Espadon walked away from the girl, with soundless steps.
“Remember that next time you try to kill someone with a blade.”
The Dagger looked at his watch. Time to leave.
“Well. It's been fun, but now I gotta go. See ya!”
“Wait! My dagger!”
Espadon laughed.
“I'm keeping it.”
“What?!”
“If I don't, they'll know that it's yours, and they might believe that you're involved into all this. And by using you, they might get back to me. Hey, you know what?” he continued, walking towards the girl again. “Let's make a deal. You want to become a warrior? Find a place I know ruled by a group called the SilentSteppers. Let's just say that they taught me quite a few things. If they don't want you, you can always tell them that you've been recommended by Scissorex.”
“Wait! I… I didn't even tell you my name!”
Espadon's white teeth shone in the dark.
“I didn't tell you mine either. Though I kind of assume your last name is Akspark. We'll properly introduce ourselves when you find me again. Bye!”
Leaving the teenage girl by herself, Espadon Chokilam jumped through the window, fell in a tree close to the exit and jumped again over the gate of the mansion. In a couple of seconds, he was strolling away from the mansion, invisible in the moonlight.

"Is it ready?" the electrician nodded. They had hacked into all the major news stations to broadcast Alex's speech. They'd been planning this for years, one final push to shed light on the 'government's' lies and deceit they'd been feeding the people for far to long. The Contingency had started when a handful of the most powerful officials in the government opted to form an oligarchy where they had full power over the people. At first their was debate as to whether this should happen, but over time, the oligarchy gained momentum via fake promises to the people and persuading/bribing the rest of the former government that did not agree with their plan.

Now Alex Frazier, lead Cloak of the Resistance stood in front of a massive screen, of course the resistance leaders rarely went out in public, it was too dangerous, if someone was caught they could reveal everything about the resistance, including the fact that they new proxies to almost all of the governments major news channels.

The screen flashed to life. This was their chance to start a revolution, a final speech to open the eyes of the people to the evil of their government.

And so it began

"Good morning friends, citizens, victims. Today we interrupt your program to bring you a single question. Is their something wrong with our government? Well, to answer that question, no, our government is a powerful force for good, and I'm sure we all agree on that, but while their is nothing wrong with our government, their is something wrong with the ones who run it. It may not seem like it, after all, our lives are great. We live in the strongest country on the planet, but at what cost? The more we observe our leaders the more it becomes obvious. Our officials have held our government in its iron hand for far to long, they have ordered that a law be passed and we have bent to their will. Time and again this has happened, and have we had a say? The government is designed to lead the people, not rule the people, yet we have stood back and let it happen. So I say to you, the powerful people. Now is the time to stand up. Now is the time to fight for our freedom! Now is the time to dream! To dream of a place of equality! A place of justice! A place where every man has freedom! And with our dreams we will carry the spirit of justice all the way to the government building and demand they banish their corrupt justice and bend to the people because you have the power to change your government! The seventeenth chapter of Saint Luca states the kingdom of god is within man! Not one man, not a group of men as you see here! But in all men! You see! You have the power to change, you have the power to make your life worth it! You have the power to change the world you live in for the better! If you feel as I feel you will join my cause and fight not for your selves, but for the liberty of all! Thank you, please take the time to consider what I have said."

With that, the monitor shut off. Alex took a deep breath, the resistance around him cheered, one clapping him on the back. It was done. Now the only thing left to do was to make sure the government didn't catch them. Alex turned to the men keeping control of the news programs.

"Shut off all connection, make sure the government can't trace us." The men obliged. Alex turned, he needed to go deeper into hiding until government spies stopped searching for him or broadcasted that they'd caught him to keep the public sated, but they would not be sated this time. Alex was sure of that.

Renea Neihelm

Slash. A small piece of bark was sheared off of a tree. A second later, a small branch was relived of its leaves. Each new mark that appeared was courtesy of a smooth, pure, shining silver blade which was, at the moment, trying to slice Renea’s head off. However, it was not succeeding in the slightest, for the blade was still silver, shining, and pure save for a few small chunks of tree bark. A few wild swings at her later, Renea stopped dodging the long, sharp saber and unsheathed her dual daggers just in time to block an overhead swing towards her skull. She frowned at the now visible wielder of the thin sword.

“Uh-uh. That’s not allowed. Have a sense of honor. Don’t attack your opponent while they’re drawing their weapons.”

Renea’s opponent didn’t reply. She rolled her eyes.

“You’re boring. Really boring. Typical of warriors nowadays, I suppose, but still. I mean, with all that black-foreigner garb-” She motioned towards his dark clothes and headwrap with one of her daggers while blocking a blow with the other, “You’d be a bit more exciting.”

I’m not surprised that the government would send a fellow Dagger after me, honestly. With all of their people that I’ve killed, Plus you of course, I would expect it. Actually, I have for a while. Quite a pity that they couldn’t send someone more experienced.”

The black-clothed man still made no move to speak. Renea sighed and began to speak again, “This conversation is getting really boring now. Your gloominess is starting-” She ducked and kicked his legs out from underneath him. “to affect me. Bye-bye, now.” Renea flicked her knife at the fallen man, and watched as it sunk deep into his ribcage, killing him instantly.

Her cheery facade dropped off like a raindrop from the sky. She sunk to the ground and sighed deeply, her bright green eyes appearing slightly dulled. After sitting there a while, she carried the man to a nearby river and tossed him in. Closing her eyes and furrowing her eyebrows, she appeared pained.

“I hate this. I hope I can get an actual job soon.”

Morn

Sparks flew as he met his opponents blade. Twisting, the knight in black ducked another blow and slid his sword into the enemies stomach. He allowed himself a short grin before slipping to the side, barely dodging a massive hammer. A massive seven footer slowly stepped forwards, hefting the weapon up again, ready to strike.

Thinking quickly, The knight leaped forwards, dodging another blow. He met the giant's oncoming knee and drew his blade through it, above him, the beast roared in pain. Leaping upwards and grabbing the man's massive shoulder, he drew himself up in one smooth motion and bought his sword down on the back of the man's neck. His opponent crumpled to the ground, the knight riding him to the ground. Who dared take him on? He was Protector of Anor, Pillager of Moriana's Trove, Wielder of the White Flame! He was a GO-

An arrow sprouted from the reveling knights neck and he fell to the ground dead.

"WHAT?"

Morn stamped his feet in anger.

"NO! I call bullshit! There is NO WAY that archer could pierce my armor buff!"

But despite his anger the replay showed said archer firing a bolt from his beautiful jeweled bow striking Morn in the neck.

Growling in frustration, Morn threw down the controller and turned off the console. Just then, his secretary, Sir William Shorcaster, opened the door.

"Sir, a representative is calling, he says there's a meeting today."

"Your mom has a meeting today" Morn grumbled.

"Excuse me sir?"

"Nothing, lead on Sir William!"

The secretary grimaced,

"How many times must I tell you my names Dave?"

Morn chuckled, following Dave down the stairs,

"Fifty, then I'll consider stopping."

The duo tromped down the ornate glass staircase, leading to the lobby.

"Good morning."

A darker skinned man in a suit stood at the bottom of the stair, he extended a hand in greeting and Morn shook.

"A good morning to you as well. I'm Morn."

At this he bowed then gestured to Dave,

"And this is Sir William Shorcaster."

Dave grimaced again,

"Its Dave, Morn here has a sense of humor."

The man laughed,

"I can tell, but we must be going, the others are waiting at HQ."

"Ah, a sentence to eat cheese to." Morn said, beckoning to Dave.

"Excuse me?" Asked the man.

Dave handed Morn a wedge of cheddar,

"It means lead on."

And with that, the trio walked out of the building and entered a sleek back limo parked outside.

"So were are we going?" Asked Morn, tapping at the holo-pad at his wrist.

"There was a cyber attack yesterday afternoon. A Resistance figure head managed to hack into our emergency network and broadcasted an irritating speech berating the government for oppressing its people. The Contingency has called a security meeting to deal with the threat."

"I still say we should nuke 'em."

"Sir, with all due respect, we cant "nuke 'em".

Morn grumbled something about uranium poisoning over a mouthful of cheese as they turned a corner and parked just outside an official looking building. The trio exited the car, and pushed through the glass doors.