To the Death of the King - CG

[YukiTen]

Sophia Blackfeld gave the softest of sighs, tracing small-print words of strategy and well-thought battle plans in a red-covered book. She breathed slowly, absorbing each word as if it were a gift from a god, her blue eyes flitting from paragraph to paragraph, page to page. This book, The Art of War, was the most intelligently written book - so many tactics and conditions that had to be met in order for the tactics to work., so many positions and procedures.

She smiled twistedly, reading through to the next page where she placed her bookmark and closed the book, setting it down under the Tiffany lamp on her nightstand. Closing her sky blue eyes, she stretched out her arms and legs, joints stiff from being in one position for too long. She sighed for the second time and reopened her eyes, tossing her legs over the edge of the couch and standing.

Padding over to the needlessly large window, a dismal frown took over her face. 

The sun still shone through the clouds blanketing the sky and Britannian children still played outside in the courtyard of her father's home, tossing a pink ball to each other. Maids stood close by, monitoring their play time and rushed over if any of the children fell or hurt themselves in any way. These children were quite young, only six to nine-years-old each. 

They were so naive in their fun that it was painful.

Sophia couldn't remember the last time she'd had a solid childish moment when she was younger, having been raised up as Duke Blackfeld's daughter. Every day, she was instructed to do proper noble things like perfect her posture and study habits - was entirely unnecessary considering that, even though she was the Duke's daughter, she wasn't planning on taking his place when the time came - and even punish an Eleven the correct and brutal way that would meet everyone's expectations.

She would never lay a hand on an Eleven, for she was half.

A war was set into motion seven years ago in 2010, ten years to the day after Sophia was born. The Britannian Empire waged this war on most of the world and by the end of it, the Empire assumed control over one-third of the entire world. In its triumph, the Empire stripped Japan of its name and rights and renamed it Area Eleven, naming the defeated country's indigenous people Elevens.

Ten years before the war, as was mentioned, Duke Weiss Blackfeld took advantage of an unsuspecting Japanese maid, throwing her frail frame onto his lavish and heavily cushioned bed, where he pressed on to rape her. Bruises curved along the delicate crooks of her body, staining her wrists and small chest, her body branded by the Duke's careless drunken need to feel more power than he already felt. This woman that served him in any way she possibly could, Minami Amane, was now pregnant with his child.

Sophia closed her eyes again and turned away from the window, leaning up against the blue wall of the room her father set aside for her when school was on scheduled break.

Seeing the signs of her pregnancy, the Duke willingly forbade her from working and kept her in a less populated area of his home, hiring maids to keep quiet and take care of the woman that would bear his child. He fed her anything she requested and gave her anything she wished, treating her as if she was as holy as the Britannian Empire for which she served. However, on that fateful day, when she pushed a blond baby girl from her loins, her cervix tore and she bled out all over the bed she was given, dying instantly. The Duke took the baby and raised it as a noble, disposing of her mother's body in a less honorable manner than she deserved. Minami Amane was dressed in a beautiful blue kimono and set ablaze in a crematorium, her body slowly turning into ash. And, without hesitation, her ashes were poured into an expensive and enormous Dutch urn, forever on display in the center of the foyer in the Duke's home.

She opened her eyes and looked over towards her blue laptop, deciding it may be best not to think too much about such ancient and dismal family history. Working her way over to her laptop which sat uniform on her mahogany desk, she spared the playing children one last glance and prayed they would grow into wonderful people and never harm an Eleven. She pulled out her blue arm chair and plopped right into it, setting her laptop in her lap and opening it.

Pressing the power button... The screen lit up with its usual white glow as it turned itself on. Sophia leaned her head in her hand and breathed slowly, the familiar buzz of her laptop comin on as it's fan kicked into gear. 

"Sophia!" howled a girlish voice, interrupting her silence. 

The blond frowned and rolled her eyes. "I'm in here!" she returned, hoping to high-heaven that the person approaching her room wasn't who she thought it was.


[Im thinking that this person could be her cousin! But who's gonna RP as her cousin?]

[Gracie-kun]

[If it sucks I'm sorry - I haven't seen Code Geass in SOOO long. ><'']

Blake Addison burst into Sophia's room. But despite her rushed entrance, she stopped a little ways into the room to catch her breath, hands on her knees. Boy, was she out of shape.

Her flyaway, shoulder-length brown hair was more flyaway than usual from her running. Her tan buttoned-up shirt and knee-length orange skorts were disheveled from running. Her skin was tanned from spending afternoons playing in the sun. If one looked at her, the furthest thought from their mind would be that she was the daughter of a duchess.

After a minute Blake straightened, the freckles on her face marring from her grin. "What are you doing all cooped up in here? It's beautiful outside! Come on, get off that thing and let's race around the courtyard," she urged.

[...*stares at uber-long post above* Mine sucked so bad. =A=]

[YukiTen]

[Is Sophia's Japanese mother being raped a good enough reason for her to hate Britannia? ]

Sophia rolled her blue eyes and looked down at her fully-loaded laptop screen. There was a small white bar next to a picture of a wolf mask that said 'password' in italicized letters. Behind the bar and picture was a background of black and blue crackle designs, shatters and cracks. She moved her finger on the small mouse-pad and clicked on the bar, typing in her short but incredibly difficult password.

"And?" she questioned in bland monotone, smiling slightly as she logged in successfully and proceeded to move her finger around the mouse-pad to her Internet application and tap on it to open it up. "I hope your bratty sister doesn't work her way up here." A pause. "I know that's not all you came up here to tell me."

Truth be told, Sophia was very good at pretending to know more than she already did in order to get information out of people. And she strongly disliked her cousin's sister.

If Blake indeed allowed her sister, Imogen Blackfeld, a purebred Britannian, to follow her, she wasn't sure what she would do. The girl was around fourteen-years-old and retained no manners or respect towards her elders, especially not the elderly women. What's more, she harbored absolutely no respect for Elevens or anyone associated with them. She paraded around without a care in the world and treated others like her slaves, not having the decency to even call them by their names.

It was a sickening behavior, in Sophia's eyes. While she may not have any actual respect toward anybody, at least she pretended and treated everyone equally. Sophia had no maids, opting not to. Human servitude, no matter if it was voluntary or not, never sat well with her.

And while Imogen may not share the same last name as Blake, the two were very blood related.

She closed her eyes and kicked her feet up onto her mahogany desk and moved the mini-touch mouse-pad on her laptop up to the search field in the menu bar. "Please tell me she didn't follow you up here." Tappin on the right keys, the words 'Ashford Academy' came up and she tapped on the 'enter' button. A small smile lit up her face when the school's homepage popped up.

[Gracie-kun]

[Yep! Some people don't have to experience the wrong - if they know that someone close to them, especially a parent, had something horrible done to them (and if Sophia learned that at a young age) hatred is actually pretty common. 9.9'']

...

Blake rubbed the back of her neck and didn't look at Sophia, even though the action was unnecessary when the blond girl was absorbed in her laptop. "You really want me to lie, or you want the truth?" she muttered nervously.

"Blake! Where are you?" the shrill call of a girl echoed from the door. Unlike Blake's amiable twitter, this one's was nasally and high pitched.

The brown haired girl shuddered visibly. That was answer enough. "Look if she finds us, she's just gonna start trouble. Let's sneak out your window? Please?" she said, jogging over to Sophia and poking her forearm in a childish manner.

Blake didn't like her little sister. Although she was sixteen and two years her senior, she always felt that Imogen had been born the boss of her. That would have been okay - only, with Imogen around, Blake could do nothing but sit around and read. Ugh.

This was why she liked Sophia better. Sometimes she would get off of her computer and spend time with her outside. Sometimes. But that was better than never.

Imogen was getting closer, from the sharper trills down the hall, and Blake tugged on a lock of Sophia's blond hair. "Come on, Soph'! She's coming!" she groaned at the thought of Imogen setting her beady blue eyes on them.

[YukiTen]

Sophia didn't budge, not even paying attention to Blake's please. She let out an exasperated sigh and spun around in her chair, feet lazily strewn about on the floor.

"Sophia, your stupid dad wanted me to tell you that you'll be restarting your studies at a new school this year," the brat announced, waltzing right into her room with even a knock or a question for permission to enter. "Also, he's setting up a dorm room for you there."

"Let me guess, gaki, Ashford Academy? I'm not surprised. What do you want?" she grumbled quietly at the little brown-haired girl. Imogen may have a kind face but she was far from it. The hedonistic, egotistical, ugly little brat... Sophia didn't like her because of her disrespect for anyone with even a tiny smigeon of Japanese blood. Her respect for her elders was equally as low, hence why she always referred to someone as stupid.

"Hmph. You won't be living here in Versailles anymore, Sophia. You'll be living in Area Eleven," Imogen snapped with childish disgust. "You'll have to walk around the dirty Elevens and work with dirty Elevens."

"Shut up. If it weren't for the Elevens, you wouldn't have a decent set of clothes to put on every morning," Sophia quipped, clicking on the 'Facilities' list on Ashford's main page, smiling twistedly as the full list popped up. "If I were you, I'd be grateful. But I'm smart enough not to need someone to pick out my clothes or boss around."

Imogen frowned indignantly and crossed her arms over her otherwise flat chest, glaring at Sophia. "Whatever! Maybe they shouldn't have lost the war!"

"Maybe you should shut up."

Sophia read through the different amenities that the school presented, her eyebrow quirking. She was impressed. Full bathrooms, master bedrooms, dining rooms, tvs, a kitchen with all the utilities available, fully remodeled rooms, chandeliers, running water, free trash pick-up, shampoos, conditioners, toothpastes, fully stocked refridgerator... The dorms were pretty cool. They were fully furnished too.

"Hmm... Blake, you'll be attending that school, too, won't you?" she asked, turning her head towards the active girl. She didn't understand why she let her sister boss we around. The brat was younger than she was. She should take charge.

"Yes!" Imogen barked, obviously wanting attention.

[Gracie-kun]

Blake visibly flinched when Imogen came strutting into the room. The girl was perfect; a little porcelain doll come to life. She wore dresses and skirts all the time and was the picture of prim. She looked like a duchess' daughter.

Her elder sister, on the other hand, looked more like a commoner's daughter.

Not that Blake really cared - she didn't like dresses, and she'd much rather have the freedom of being able to run around without getting told to act ladylike. (Her tutors had given up on that long ago.) But when it came to their mother's affections, Imogen had the spotlight. Their father was always away on business or something. Imogen held all parental attention around her tiny little finger.

It was irritating. But tolerable.

"Blake, you'll be attending that school, too, won't you?" Sophia asked in her cool-water voice.

The brown haired girl blinked from her stupor. "Eh?"

"Yes!" Imogen piped.

"Eh?" Blake blinked a few times before glancing at Sophia's computer screen. Ashford Academy was currently up on the browser. Blake's blue eyes grew twice the size of her face and she grabbed the laptop. "EHH??! I'm going here? Since when?" she yelped in alarm.

[YukiTen]

When Blake gave her confused reply, Sophia blinked and turned her attention to the doll-like annoyance standing before her. Imogen was impatiently tapping her small foot and tightly hold her arms over her chest. "Did you enroll her without permission, Imogen?" she quelled, quirking a thin blond eyebrow with mild irritation.

The brown-haired girl's face went a deep shade of red and her mouth hung open slightly, surprised at Sophia's question. "How did you--"

"You're a fool. The walls are thin and when you're mother finds out, you'll be grounded for ages," Sophia chimed, swirling her finger around on the touch-pad. Right under the 'Facilities' link was the 'Classes' link. She moved her finger on the touch-pad up to the link and not even two seconds later, the offered courses popped up.

Imogen stood there, flustered, her brows furrowed with anger. "Shut up, you big meanie!"

Sophia turned away from the thoughtless brown-haired girl in her chair and looked up at Blake with her cool blue eyes. "I guess you'll be attending Ashford with me. Well, let's go tell your mother. We can look at the classes later." She tapped on the necessary keys to freeze the computer screen so she could come back to it and closed the laptop. 

The best thing about her laptop was that it automatically locked. If Imogen wanted to do anything with it, she would be unable to. The lock was much too difficult to break through and there was a back up lock in case she did get through. State of the art technology did wonders.

She set the wonderful piece of technology on her desk and stood up, stretching out her arms. "Shall we, Blake?"

[Gracie-kun]

"Attending that place? For real?" Blake's wide blue eyes settled on her younger sister, who was pouting with her doll-perfect lips sticking together. She looked so cute with her cheeks red and puffed out like that. Their mother always fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Blake turned back to Sophia and nodded. "Alright, I'm coming."

Sophia's house was really a testament to luxury. Maids and other servants flitted about everywhere, ready to help if you were lost or needed any sort of refreshment. Rooms upon rooms and floors upon floors. While the inside was quite lavish, though, Blake normally spent her time outside whenever she visited her uncle and cousin - their garden and courtyard were unrivaled in both beauty and size.

Blake walked a few meters in front of Sophia, who glided on softly. The brown haired girl occupied herself with hopping on only certain patterns on the rug that ran the length of the giant hallway. Her eyes were solidly on her feet as she asked, "Immy really wants to get rid of me, doesn't she?"

Although her face was blank with mild alertness, her voice was heavy. What Imogen had done really did hurt.

[YukiTen]

"Imogen is a useless brat. She has no feelings and all she wants is to be the center of attention. You're better off with me, anyway," Sophia explained gently, taking careful step after careful step down the lavish hallway.

It was really quite sad what Imogen was doing; All because she was so selfish and begged for the attention. Another thing Sophia didn't like about her cousin. That brat was too selfish to see the harm she inflicted on the people closest to her, especially her sister. Blake received little to no attention from her mother, having to settle for Duke Blackfeld and her own father when they could be present just because Imogen was a greedy little insect.

A frown tugged at the corners of Sophia's full lips, her thin brows furrowing. "I'd rather you be with me, Blake," she said quietly, rounding a corner and continuing on.

There were seven doors on each side of the hall, all shut and each painted a different shade of gold. At the end of the hall was an opening which, in turn, lead to the foyer of the Blackfeld estate. Sophia sighed and occupied herself with the unnecessary designs in the carpeting, analyzing the curves and circles, angels and sizes of the gold patterns in the otherwise red carpet. There were blues and greens, oranges and purples interlaced in swirling lines with gold designs, making the gold pop out.

It was then Sophia realized she lived in an unnecessarily lavish estate.

Nearing the mouth of the hallway, she stopped and looked around, her blue eyes settling on the Dutch urn protruding from the pale tiles in the center of the foyer. Around the urn was a circle of snapdragons, favorite flowers, blue ones. Each flower was trimmed and arranged to perfection, leaning towards the Japanese woman's grave. Just outside of the ring of snapdragons was a circle of periwinkle tiles that acted as a frame for the beautiful array of flowers and the tall burial urn.

Deep inside, Sophia wished she could've met her mother. She never quite got the guidance she needed from a woman, having a neglectful step-mother that she had never even met or seen. There wouldn't be much to say about a woman who she'd never had the...privilege of being in her presence. If only Weiss Blackfeld hadn't raped the maid, if only her mother was stron enough to pull through, if only the stupid Britannian duke hadn't married such a pitiful Britannian woman, Sophia would have a mother. A living one.

Maa... She frowned.

Two stairwells lined the edges of the large, circular foyer, leading to the large, exquisite doors that opened up to the driveway outside. An intricate railing followed the stairs as they went; Underneath the spot Sophia had stopped herself in was a hall (Jut imagine the layout of The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphey). This hall lead to the ballroom, and in the ballroom there was a flight of stairs that lead up to the Duke's room.

And the Duke's room was where all the noble family would be hidin out in, Sophia's destination.

"C'mon, Blake. Feel free to talk," she said flatly, taking her leave down the stairs.

[Gracie-kun]

Blake frowned as Sophia described Imogen, glad that her cousin couldn't see her expression since she was hopping along in front of her. But she does have feelings, Soph'. She'd never say it out loud for fear of an argument with her best friend and favorite cousin, but she'd sure think it. Immy has feelings.

Ever since they were little, it was true that Imogen had stolen all affections of their mother. At two years old, Blake had watched Liesel (her mother) completely fall in love with the newborn she was to call sister. She'd stand in the doorway of Imogen's nursery and simply watch her mother coo and coddle the pretty little thing. From the very first day, Blake had been afraid to touch Imogen. The doll-like creature would shatter against her rough hand.

While Rodger Addison would make time to play in the yard with her, chasing her and pacifying her need for movement, Liesel had stopped trying all together. She was a lady of propriety who felt that even little ladies shouldn't play so roughly. Somehow, without knowing it, Blake had disappointed her mother. So Liesel turned to this fresh, new chance at a prim daughter. And Blake was left in the yard, a kickball her only companion.

It wasn't until she'd been sent to visit her uncle Wiess that she actually made a friend. Sophia. The blond little angel with eyes of powdery sky blue. She was gentle and paid attention to Blake, a gesture the brunette had only gotten from her father. Uncle Wiess had always been good about playing with her, too, for a while, though he still sort of scared her.

Sophia was more of a sister to Blake than Imogen. So why did Blake stick up for the younger girl who would rather get rid of her than love her, even under her breath?

"C'mon, Blake. Feel free to talk," Sophia said, smashing her self-destructive thoughts.

"A-Ah, right," Blake stammered, turning pink a little. She distracted herself from the embarrassment by switching from hopping on the carpet pattern to spinning every few steps. Her eyes were on the ceiling as she did this, slowly, so she wouldn't get dizzy. The patterns on the ceiling were interesting if one spun while gazing at them. "So what do you think Ashford'll be like? You don't think it'll be a total cram-time academy, do you? I don't know if I could take it," she said with a groan.

[Holy long post of long posts. And it was mostly inner-war crap. O___O'' Sorry about that. ><]