Relationship with Formal Allies
- At first, GESTALT thought nothing of Appendagger. He was merely another machine warrior under the thumb of PentaCorp. However, after examining his combat logs, GESTALT saw an opportunity in him.
They learned of his goals and obsessions. GESTALT knew how much Appendagger had tossed away to join the Arena Manifest: how he wanted to be a beacon of hope for his fellow Drones; how he aspired to land the history books as a Blade Warrior.
How much he "loved" Io.
And so one day GESTALT contacted Appendagger via psionic uplink, declaring themselves as a man named "Gary Estel": the founder of "GESTALT Applied Robotic Systems" (GARS), and from thereon they would officially become allies.
From thereon, GESTALT would prime Appendagger to be their champion. They would tell Appendagger all he wanted to hear, and in return he told GESTALT most of what they wanted to hear.
GESTALT was content with this relationship, however one-sided it was; contrary to what others said about this situation, GESTALT valued their deal with Appendagger.
After all, GESTALT were playing a big game of chess, and they needed all the pieces they could get.
Explaination of Complicated Relationships
- As implied previously, to say that Appendagger loves Io would be both an understatement and a lie. From the moment he laid his eyes on her, Appendagger felt a connection to Io, and a deep one at that. He believed they were made for each other.
Unfortunately for him, there were three things in the way of his dream.
For one, Io didn't reciprocate his feelings back, as she only met Appendagger a few times in the past and only thought of him as an acquaintance. However, Appendagger deduced that Io interacted so minimally and so poorly with him because she was shy to meet him and screw up her encounter with him.
The second of these problems would be who Io really was, as according to Pyus, she had fallen from grace through willfully becoming impure, and thus needed to be executed. However, this did not deter him at all, as Appendagger didn't buy this story at all, leading to his excommunication from the Triadmus Sects.
The third and most glaring of these problems would be who Io became, as after her supposed execution, a SRVU unit with similar body abnormalities by the name of "The Psychopomp" would begin to make a name for themselves in the Alkaline Games. Unfortunately for Appendagger, he would grow to hate the Psychopomp, as whoever donned this name clearly had gained a lot of confidence in battle by this point, and had nearly made a fool of the Ashigarai Warrior by using the limb that he sliced off them to beat Appendagger senseless. From that moment on, Appendagger would devote a significant portion of his time to not only defeat the Psychopomp, but to kill them in the most brutal way he could muster. Needless to say, this caused a lot of complications when the Psychopomp revealed themselves to be Io, who had somehow faked her death and had been using the Psychopomp's stolen Manifest registration to strike out against the system that kept her in chains.
Io had seen their previous match as a game and had acted extremely ruthlessly in their previous battle to throw off any pursuers that were looking for someone in the Arena reluctant to actually damage let alone kill their enemies. In her next encounters, she was horrified. Not because of Appendagger's more aggressive approach in fighting her but rather the onset of Specter-5 Mutations allowing Io to read deeply into the minds of other Mecharus.
They learned of his goals and obsessions. GESTALT knew how much Appendagger had tossed away to join the Arena Manifest: how he wanted to be a beacon of hope for his fellow Drones; how he aspired to land the history books as a Blade Warrior.
How much he "loved" Io.
And so one day GESTALT contacted Appendagger via psionic uplink, declaring themselves as a man named "Gary Estel": the founder of "GESTALT Applied Robotic Systems" (GARS), and from thereon they would officially become allies.
From thereon, GESTALT would prime Appendagger to be their champion. They would tell Appendagger all he wanted to hear, and in return he told GESTALT most of what they wanted to hear.
GESTALT was content with this relationship, however one-sided it was; contrary to what others said about this situation, GESTALT valued their deal with Appendagger.
After all, GESTALT were playing a big game of chess, and they needed all the pieces they could get.
Unfortunately for him, there were three things in the way of his dream.
For one, Io didn't reciprocate his feelings back, as she only met Appendagger a few times in the past and only thought of him as an acquaintance. However, Appendagger deduced that Io interacted so minimally and so poorly with him because she was shy to meet him and screw up her encounter with him.
The second of these problems would be who Io really was, as according to Pyus, she had fallen from grace through willfully becoming impure, and thus needed to be executed. However, this did not deter him at all, as Appendagger didn't buy this story at all, leading to his excommunication from the Triadmus Sects.
The third and most glaring of these problems would be who Io became, as after her supposed execution, a SRVU unit with similar body abnormalities by the name of "The Psychopomp" would begin to make a name for themselves in the Alkaline Games. Unfortunately for Appendagger, he would grow to hate the Psychopomp, as whoever donned this name clearly had gained a lot of confidence in battle by this point, and had nearly made a fool of the Ashigarai Warrior by using the limb that he sliced off them to beat Appendagger senseless. From that moment on, Appendagger would devote a significant portion of his time to not only defeat the Psychopomp, but to kill them in the most brutal way he could muster. Needless to say, this caused a lot of complications when the Psychopomp revealed themselves to be Io, who had somehow faked her death and had been using the Psychopomp's stolen Manifest registration to strike out against the system that kept her in chains.
Io had seen their previous match as a game and had acted extremely ruthlessly in their previous battle to throw off any pursuers that were looking for someone in the Arena reluctant to actually damage let alone kill their enemies. In her next encounters, she was horrified. Not because of Appendagger's more aggressive approach in fighting her but rather the onset of Specter-5 Mutations allowing Io to read deeply into the minds of other Mecharus.