Kitty
Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2024
- Messages
- 8
- Thread Author
- #1
| How do we prosper? Is it through money? Perhaps through power? The answer might differ for everyone, yet there is one aspect that cannot be denied: persuasion. We survive by molding views. The art of convincing others, so they give you what you want, so they do not see you as a threat, is how you thrive. As a babe, you convince your mother to feed you. A friend proposes to a girl to convince her to be his. A father convinces his boss to give him a raise. And so did humanity convince the Combine of their worth, and avoid total extinction. Reality is not important, as long as you can alter the perception of others. Olivia is no exception to this. Like the few others, so too, did she learn the true power of perception throughout her life. Born in French Guiana as the only daughter of a father with ancestry hailing from Algeria and Madagascar, and a mother with roots in Haiti and local to French Guiana, Olivia is a mishmash of the colonial past of France. Her father was a politician, weaving stories to his own benefit, while her mother? A journalist, shaping the public’s view on local and global events, dictating how they consume the media she published. Raised in such a household, the young girl was quick to learn of the importance of perception and persuasion. A two-faced girl with an ever-present mask first to her friends, then to her colleagues, she thought she had figured out life. Unfortunately for her, all of it would soon come crashing down. After the Combine disrupted the natural order of things by capitulating the united forces of Earth in seven hours, Olivia saw the obvious writing on the wall and was quick to accept the new reality. New world, new rules, new mask. It should be easy, right? Not exactly. She was forced out of her home and relocated to a newly built city in Brazil where her success very much varied: and as much as she would like to claim that she was never re-educated before, during the early occupation she wasn’t a stranger to beatings. Quite the contrary, it was a common occurrence given the constant curfews and food shortages within the former territories of Brazil. She had to learn all the rules, learn how an officer ticks, learn her way around the system, the machinery that was the Combine. Even if her time in City 5 was harsh, the experience she collected cemented her success later on. Though she rose through the tiers, from common citizenry to a fully-established collaborator, so would she gain a sense of superiority, an ego that would be tested with a relocation. Little did she know that her relocation to City 13 would lead her to the start of a promising political career. Unlike most of her fellow party members, Olivia was introduced to hyper-republicanism only a decade into the occupation. It promised her a path that she had not envisioned. Why waste her time fooling her friends or toying with Civil Protection when there was so much more she could do? Not only would this keep her entertained, but also help her mind stay sharp, overcome challenges, actually test her persuasion skills. Arceneaux’s charisma certainly provided her with the direction she was lacking, and so she was sent to City 57 in order to assist the efforts of establishing a local chapter of the Hyper-Republican Party. ‘Political experience’ they called it. In reality? They simply needed numbers to fill ranks. There, she would fight the Industrialists and the Unionists, learning all the essential tools of the trade, getting a hang of the ropes, debating, plotting, scheming, just to further the goals of City 13. Years after helping found the roots for a Walloon branch, Olivia was recalled and sent back out as the people of Romandie called out for her. At least that is what she would tell her friends before she departed Brussels. This was nothing more than an opportunity. Their branch within the former jewel of Sector 10, now the newly opened frontier of ideological playgrounds, needed its ranks expanded now more than ever. With René Chevalier’s ascension to the seat of Vice Administrator, and the assassination attempt against Vivienne Rodier-Geudreau, City 13 feels the need to consolidate its position within City 24 more than ever. And so, Olivia enters the game. “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and their rule begins.” |
