[Scorpion Army Commander's Quarters]
This room is small - there are walk-in closets on Earth that are bigger than this child's quarters. Still, to someone who's lived in barracks with thirty-nine other children for years, it's huge. The walls sparkle, almost as if they've been painted silver instead of grey. A stylized scorpion is painted on the back wall, twin to the one inside the army's barracks.
As for the furniture - the table looks like someone attempted to beat a hole in its top, but only succeeded in denting it severely, while the chair looks as new as if it were just brought from Earth. The locker is, incongruously, a dull, dark green. The bed is immaculately made, as if the owner made it once and has not slept on it since.
Obvious exits: [H]allway
Welcome to Caitlin's page. Here, you'll find information about... well... Caitlin. Caitlin was the first relaunch of mine that I stuck with - I think that might be because I was using my original object number. I'm very fond of #3668, you see.
#3668 was renamed Caitlin and placed into launch A on 2002.01.20. Caitlin progressed from launch (don't we all?) to Centipede, to Raven, to Leopard, and finally to command of Scorpion. Along the way, she made friends (sort of), enemies (whee) and got a toon (a couple times). She got command on 2003.06.12 - a little less than a year and a half IRL-time - and graduated on 2004.02.04, a little more than seven months later. The Scorpion page details dates and results of the @battles that Scorpion participated in; this page has the messages that I sent to *tp regarding those @battles.
Caitlin is a tall girl, wiry and tough-looking. If she's begun to develop feminine curves, the development must have just started, as she does not look much different than the boys her age. Her light blond hair is straight and short, just barely touching the tops of her ears. Ice-blue eyes, often lit with a mocking gleam, peer out of a narrow, pale face. Her expression is usually quite solemn, especially around the staff, but sometimes that seriousness is broken by a genuine, if small, smile. There is something different about her since she got command - it's hard to put a finger on what exactly has changed, though.
She is wearing a purple uniform with red stripes and a stylized scorpion in dark grey on each sleeve, along with a commander's patch.
| Full name: | Caitlin Emory |
| Age: | 12 |
| Personality: | Caitlin is quiet and serious around adults, seeming almost eerily focused. It's only other children who see her dark sense of humor and her amusement at others' stupidity or lack of planning. Since she has gotten command, something about her is different - something affecting everything she does, from the way she talks, to the way she moves, and even to the way she eats. It's hard to define exactly what that difference is, though. |
| Background: | Caitlin was conceived by artificial insemination, and raised by her unmarried mother, who spent as little time as possible with her. Caitlin quickly learned that adults only wanted to be impressed and then left alone, and that most children were much less intelligent than she. But then she went to Battle School, and found herself to be just average, and adults all-too-predictably unfair. She doesn't have many friends, and the only soldier she'd actually call a friend is Awk, who was in launch with her and given command five months before she was. Two other former launch-mates were given command before she was - Fulani, four months before Awk, and August, two months after. But the teachers did not forget Caitlin - exactly six months before her twelfth birthday, she was given command of Scorpion, taking over from the quickly-forgotten Gord. |
Gord "Fat Man" Williams graduated today. Captain Svenson handed him his note as he entered her classroom, and he promptly went to the shuttle, the palm pads in that direction responding to his touch. Since he didn't stop to tell anyone the news, no one knew where he went until the notice was posted, revealing his eventual destination as Navigational School.
The Fat Man wasn't the only passenger on the shuttle, of course. Three launchies iced out and Susan Sto'Helit went on to Combat School.
Many of the Scorpions hadn't even heard that the Fat Man had graduated by the time their new commander had taken up residence. As they gathered for their after-lunch practice, they were greeted by a tall, skinny soldier already dressed for the battleroom. When they were all present, their commander removed her helmet and revealed herself to be Caitlin Emory.
"I know the Fat Man wasn't the best commander here. But none of you are stupid, or they'd have iced you," she's reported to have said. "I learned from the best. I will make you better."
Three months came and went, and still no battle notice under Caitlin's door. The girl was beginning to get worried... until finally, a week and a half after the 90-day mark, there was a notice that she was battling Lion, August Darsumire's army.
The two former launch-mates faced off in a morning battle. It was excruciatingly close... at the end, there were only six Scorpions left undisabled... but there were no Lions able to shoot.
August had been one of the last to be disabled, and his head was unfrozen as Caitlin sent Cassius Goforth, Elone Tarras, Meg Kady and Sandy Kreja to open the gate... and Helga Porey, her only surviving toon leader, to go through it. Only Meg and Sandy were whole, and Helga had been disabled... while Gabriel Jessad had been perfectly able to shoot, he hadn't been able to move.
Before the teachergate opened and a staffer floated through it, August called out, "Well done, Caitlin!"
And she, surprisingly enough, answered, "You too, August."
Is this a sign of inter-army... er... something?
Has Caitlin gone soft and squishysquishysquishy?
Or is this just a further proof that you can't get command here unless you're insane?
As the lights came on in Scorpion barracks this morning, the waking soldiers were immediately graced with their commander's presence.
We have a battle, boys and girls,
she announced, not shouting... not even sounding excited. But the even, calm tone of her voice was in contrast to the sapphire sparks dancing in her eyes.
When all forty of her soldiers were dressed in their flashsuits, just as she was, she led them up to the battleroom corridor. There were two ways to move on from that point, one marked with red, purple, and silvery-gray light, the other with green, white, and brown light. But instead of following the first fork, the Scorpions waited at the junction until they saw Ledge leading his Manticores up to the same place. They had apparently practiced this, because instead of shouting taunts, or even saying a greeting, all forty-one of them stood still and silent until the Manticores had followed their strip of light.
Rumor has it that some of the Scorpions found it exceedingly difficult to do this. But none of them disobeyed orders, and when Caitlin turned back to face her army, she was obviously pleased, even laughing - although it wasn't exactly a pleasant laugh.
The Scorpions headed to their own gate, and when the forcefield dropped, they charged in. The setup was annoying - the stars were well spread out as far as up-down and east-west orientation went, but they were clustered in the very center as far as north-south orientation. Caitlin decided, apparently, to completely bypass the stars and use the floor as a launching point.
The strategy was costly, losing her half her army - all of Beta and Iota toons, to be exact - but it eventually proved successful. At the end there were thirty-two Manticores destroyed and nine disabled, along with seventeen Scorpions destroyed, eleven disabled, five damaged... and, amazingly, eight whole.
The seconds and toon leaders for Alpha and Gamma toons opened the gate, and little Soheila Aboujib was tossed through - all that was unfrozen on her suit was her shooting arm.
Caitlin was gracious enough to Ledge, but it was hard to hide her glee at winning two in a row... and it wouldn't be surprising if all of Scorpion were quite arrogant for... weeks.
With two wins in a row, many in and outside of Scorpion were expecting Caitlin's next battle to be less than spectacular. After all, every lucky run of wins ends sometime, right? The battle with Asp, unfortunately for them, failed to meet those expectations.
Caitlin's Scorpions met up with Landon "Ezzy" Easton's Asps for the latter's first battle. It came a little early for the Asps - only 80 days had passed since Ezzy got command. Perhaps those extra ten days would have helped, as the Scorpions systematically froze or disabled the Asps within fifteen minutes.
Toon B was decimated, leaving only Keu able to shoot - but not move - and only Coledy able to move - but not shoot. But the rest of the army fared surprisingly well: only ten destroyed and fifteen disabled, leaving twelve damaged and four whole. Oddly enough, Asp also had fifteen disabled, although twenty-six of theirs were destroyed.
Mallory, Jurgen, Helga and Kreshov opened the gate - Alpha-toon was favored because none of its members were destroyed - and Elone was sent through. Caitlin had been merely disabled, not destroyed as in her last two battles, and she waited patiently for Lt. Vangedran to bring her the hook.
She was polite to Ezzy, but far more arrogant than before - and when she had sent her Scorpions through the Aspgate, she had them wait in the corridor in silence, just as she had done before the battle.
Every streak ends sometime, and tonight was the night for Scorpion's to end. Most of the Scorpions will attribute it to exhaustion - after all, they'd already had practice, they'd had classes, they weren't expecting it. Caitlin will attribute it to her own failings. The answer is a mix of all that, and, of course, luck.
The battleroom was nearly completely dark, but that was a hindrance to both armies. The stars were fairly evenly spaced. And at the beginning, Scorpion was crushing Squirrel. At some point, things fell apart. Once it became clear, however, that Squirrel had won (though they had only five undisabled) the leader of toon D (who was able to move and speak but not shoot) led two of those able to shoot (Garrett and Seth) around the room, destroying every remaining Scorpion. Caitlin had been able to speak when this started, and she cursed the Squirrels for not 'just getting on with it' until she, too, went silent.
Finally, Garrett, Seth, Chet, and Leander opened the gate, and the leader of toon D floated through. Captain Svenson brought Fogle the teacherhook, and he accepted Caitlin's - furious, barely polite - surrender with a smile.
Statistics: Scorpion: 41 destroyed, 0 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole. Squirrel: 33 destroyed, 3 disabled, 5 damaged and 0 whole.
Caitlin's first reaction was disbelief. No one fought the same army twice in a row. It didn't happen!
Her second was a slowly-growing sense of glee. So the teachers wanted to give her another chance, did they? She'd show them!
She was laughing to herself as she got dressed and headed for her army's barracks. We have another chance, Scorpions, so get dressed and let's go kill some Squirrels!
Once again they waited silently and watched as the Squirrels went past. Once again they went into a darkened battleroom, although the star arrangement was much less useful for either army, this time. Once again they started out with a strong attack - but this time it did not waver.
When all the shooting stopped, Caitlin was still able to speak and move, though both arms were frozen stiffly in position. Turnabout is fair play,
she shouted, and sent three soldiers from her part of the formation (Helga Porey, Cassius Goforth and Elone Tarras) to make sure that every Squirrel was frozen solid before sending those three and Meg Kady to open the gate, and Signy Mallory through it.
Statistics: Scorpion: 20 destroyed, 14 disabled, 5 damaged and 2 whole. Squirrel: 41 destroyed, 0 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole.
Two weeks and five days after Scorpion's rematch against Squirrel, they went up against Phoenix. Word has it that Padarok Thorn had been carefully questioning Fogle for information on Scorpion's tactics, and apparently that information came in handy.
The battle was going at a painfully slow pace until Marc Kreshov, leader of Iota Toon, made a significant error in judgment. His toon was gobbled up by the eagerly-waiting Phoenix, and the Scorpions' position became worse from there.
In the end, there were two whole Phoenixes and no undisabled Scorpions. Padarok had secretly ordered his toon leaders to destroy all the Scorpions, if Phoenix won, but no toon leaders survived to pass on that order. He was nearly as furious as Caitlin by the time that Lt. Arion arrived with the teacherhook, and once he had thawed Scorpion, he left without waiting for Caitlin's surrender.
Statistics: Scorpion: 25 destroyed, 16 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole. Phoenix: 23 destroyed, 12 disabled, 4 damaged and 2 whole.
Only twelve days had passed since Scorpion's loss to Phoenix. Caitlin and her army were wary, as was her former launchmate, and the battle started off slowly while the commanders decided how much risk they could accept.
The outcome was a foregone conclusion to most of those who saw the army names blinking during breakfast - the only surprise was that it took Scorpion an hour and a half to win. Caitlin was one of the few completely frozen, so Signy Mallory (herself only damaged) directed Joshua Talley, Nino Coledy, Elone Tarras, and Marc Kreshov to take the corners, and sent the newest of Scorpion's toon leaders, Sandri Keu, through the gate.
Statistics: Scorpion: 8 destroyed, 17 disabled, 10 damaged and 6 whole. Rat: 25 destroyed, 16 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole.
Thirteen days after the slow battle against Rat, Caitlin got her next battle notice. This time she was up against Tide and their commander, Goliath.
The battleroom was almost blindingly bright, and squinting soldiers most often found stars when they slammed prematurely into their sides. Losing limbs became a liability, for it made that soldier more visible than those nearby.
After thirty-seven minutes of eye-watering chaos, the Tides stopped shooting. Marc Kreshov, Elone Tarras, Jurgen Graff and Cassius Goforth were sent to open the gate, while Bethany Yeager went through it. The lights dimmed once the gate was opened, perhaps for the benefit of Major Bojczuk as he arrived through the teachergate.
Statistics: Scorpion: 10 destroyed, 11 disabled, 12 damaged and 8 whole. Tide: 20 destroyed, 21 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole.
Caitlin went up against her launchmate August Darsumire for her first battle. This morning she went up against him again for her eleventh battle.
Both armies were fairly certain of the conclusion. That cockiness could have been exploited in several potentially fatal ways... if only Lion hadn't been so convinced of its own imminent destruction. The battle was so quick that many Lions never got even a single shot off... and not a single Scorpion was completely destroyed.
For some reason, Caitlin refrained from displaying her normal after-battle smirk, and accepted August's formal surrender with surprising grace, a courtesy she's shown only to him and to Carson.
Statistics: Scorpion: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled, 17 damaged, 8 whole. Lion: 24 destroyed, 17 disabled, 0 damaged, 0 whole.
As Caitlin was leaving the mess hall after dinner, Captain Svenson handed her a small slip of paper. As she read it, she cursed - loudly enough for anyone nearby to hear, and maybe those in the mess halls too - and then went into the regular mess hall. "Scorpions!" she yelled. "Get down to the barracks NOW!"
When they arrived, she was already in her flash suit. "Get dressed, we've got a battle against Asp," she told them. The Scorpions would later learn that Asp had just started practice when a teacher came in to tell them about the battle. They hadn't been allowed to stay in the room, of course, but they were already in the gate when the Scorpions straggled into their own gate.
Though she was tired and frustrated, Caitlin did not make too many mistakes - but those she did were fatal. The battle was fairly quick, though Asp had only the five required to open the gate, and none were whole.
Scorpion slipped from second to fourth on the scoreboard, while Asp remained in thirteenth. On the commander boards, Caitlin clung to her top position, while Ezzy rose one place to thirteenth.
Statistics: Scorpion: 30 destroyed, 11 disabled, 0 damaged, 0 whole Asp: 29 destroyed, 7 disabled, 5 damaged, 0 whole.
Caitlin and Fogle met in the battleroom for the third time this morning. Their armies were shouting insults almost from the second that the gates opened, and neither commander made much of an effort to control them. Both commanders fought well, with no serious mistakes, but Fogle prevailed in the end, both in terms of the battle (five Phoenixes were undisabled at the end) and personally (he was one of them). The surviving Phoenixes, following the pattern of all their recent victories, ensured that all of their opponents were destroyed, not merely disabled, before Fogle himself went through the gate.
Caitlin was furious, of course, and Fogle's laughter as he thawed her and her soldiers did not help. She was only more furious when she arrived at the commanders' mess and found that she had dropped from the first place on the commander board to second.
Statistics: Scorpion: 41 destroyed, 0 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole. Squirrel: 20 destroyed, 16 disabled, 5 damaged and 0 whole.
Today, thirteen days after Scorpion v Squirrel and fifteen days after Griffin v Leopard, Caitlin Emory and Thomas Theisman received notices to meet in the battleroom.
Thomas had not yet won a battle, and this would not be his first. Griffin's formation fractured early on, and Scorpion took advantage of their confusion. By the time Thomas had them under control again, he had lost half of his soldiers, and from that point on seemed to lose hope. He was one of the last frozen, however, and he scored a direct body hit on Caitlin.
Caitlin moved up from second to first on the commander board, while Scorpion jumped from fourth to second. Thomas and Griffin both remained at fourteenth.
Statistics: Scorpion: 12 destroyed, 14 disabled, 9 damaged and 6 whole. Griffin: 29 destroyed, 12 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole.
Subject: @battle: Scorpion vs. Centipede
Winner: Centipede
From: Quinby
Subject: Centipede Happenings/Battle
Odd Things have been happening in the Centipede neck of the woods lately. Rumours have flown around of a transfer, the worst transfer that could ever happen for Quinby's army. About a week prior, Centipede battled Scorpion. While the battle was insanely close, the tide was turned by Davin, TL of B, first annoyingly picking off the scorpions one-by-one, then, once his arms were frozen, going in to a star of scorpions and creating much havoc. Only a full-chest shot would take the boy out for good. When the battle ended, ironically yet again, the last shot taken by Quinby, there were barely enough left for the gate ceremony. Sian, Diego, Devon, and Anubis, who dramatically stuck his rear in the air while doing the ceremony, were given corners, with Quin herself taking the gate. She wanted one, darmit.
Caitlin's harsh practices had just begun to relax towards more typical Caitlin-style training when she was notified of her next battle. Word has it that she spent a little longer than usual talking to her Scorpions in the barracks - perhaps reminding them that she expected nothing less than perfection. Even with the longer talk, Scorpion managed to arrive at the junction before Phoenix did, and stood watching in silence as their opponents passed.
The Scorpions seemed to have learned the lessons of their losses well, and their formation remained cohesive until the end. The Phoenixes did not embarrass themselves, however, with an impressive performance for Carpenter's first battle.
Scorpion went from fourth to second on the army scoreboard, while Caitlin remained in second on the commander standings. Phoenix dropped from third to fourth on the army boards, and Carpenter dropped from seventh to eleventh.
Statistics: Scorpion: 8 destroyed, 10 disabled, 13 damaged and 10 whole. Phoenix: 20 destroyed, 21 disabled, 0 damaged and 0 whole.
Caitlin graduated today (along with the other nine commanders who left), with orders to report to Tactical after a brief vacation landside. She saw one of her soldiers (Joshua Talley) in the corridor, and informed him that she had graduated (though not of her destination) - if their paths hadn't crossed, however, she wouldn't have made any attempt to let her soldiers know she was leaving.
She did stop a passing Condor to ask him where his commander was, and then went down to the library to tell awk. Whether he was the only one she sought out, or the only one she didn't find on her own, remains in question.
Now, for links to the Caitlin stories on this site. The 'Night Watch' story refers to dictating a toon policy. That policy was the practice of keeping a constant watch on the barracks. The character 'Nataku' did exist at one point, but when his player left Ansible, the character iced.
Lastly, these are Caitlin's desk-journal entries. Writing in a journal wasn't required when she went through launch, but I used it three times anyway over the course of the time I played her.
That's all there is to see - go away now.
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