Nikita's Red Coalition Banner

[Sycmos]

Byond key: Sycmos

Discord key: Sycmos

Character Name: Nikita Yutani

Item name: Red Coalition banner

Item function(s): Behaves like a normal flag, has been sprited to behave like other flags in the game.

Item description: A high-quality copy of an original Red Coalition banner. This variant on the standard was flown by the Zelazny arcology during the Martian World War, Zelazny's origins as a mining colony represented in the center by the alchemical symbol for iron.

Why is your character bringing this item to work?: Plenty of other people hang flags in their workspaces on the Aurora, and in the absence of a respectable Martian flag it wouldn't look out of place or be anymore politically troubling than a Solarian flag (or any of its new derivatives). Considering the recent disaster I think that it would likely bring him some comfort while he's away from home and working, and be a more subtle way of showing solidarity.

How did your character obtain this item: Nikita's mother, prior to meeting his father and moving to the Demios arcology, was originally from Zelazny and between the two is the only native Martian (Nikita's father originally being from Earth before moving to Zelazny as an adolescent). Having descended from participants in the Martian World War she inherited an original flag as a family heirloom from her parents when they passed, Nikita receiving it from his parents when they did. As he values the original flag much more than taking it to work and risking some S*larian sympathizer burning it where it hangs he's instead had a copy of it made for recreational purposes, and keeps the original safe at home.

What value does this item have to your character, and what story does it tell?: The Martian World War is a problematic point in the planet's history, a testament to the turbulent and trying truce between worlds that made the former Solarian Alliance and yet another wicked warning as to the lasting power of nuclear weapons. One would assume that being the closest habitable neighbor to Earth would have brought the planet a much better place in the Alliance (including the adjacency of a bluespace gate), but as history has told this has been anything but true. Olympia was a crowded mess of overengineering and rampant wealth inequality; the enormous monument to corporate wastefulness that were the Metal Dunes, and the general failure to terraform the surface that inevitably left the planet in the dust in favor of other, more prosperous worlds. As such, Martians have been conditioned by their environment to hold an intense love/hate relationship with their world and their place within the Alliance, eventually culminating in the birth of the entity (and to some, the cult of personality) that became the Red Coalition. Despite its respectable goals of independence, autonomy and self-determination for a world and people largely forgotten by the Alliance the Coalition's image was brutally marred by the first usage of nuclear weapons in human history since World War 2 (up until the use of phoron warheads by the SCC) to destroy a loyalist arcology. Though largely forgotten by time and other troubles the Coalition, despite the tumult its name brings, still behaves as something of an icon to Martians who hold onto the spirit of independence and perseverance, especially after the Violet Dawn disaster. To Nikita personally it's a tie to the family that has long passed, their history and the legacy that he has inherited as a Martian himself. 

Sprites: (See attached)

Additional Comments: Thank you Chevy for the great execution on my idea for the flag. I hope that Human lore writers find this acceptable, and if there's anything that they would like changed or any questions I'm more than willing to cooperate!

redcoalitionbannerdmi.dmi

[NewOriginalSchwann]

This has my approval as a human lore deputy.

[Bear]

RED IN MY BLOOD RED ON THE FLAG!

Anyone who knows Nikita also knows about his proud Red-Planet heritage and the red col. I'd like to see the flag he's talked about for so long in game.

[Sycmos]

Can I get an update on this? I realize that these things take time but it's been more than two months with no response.

[Alberyk]

Sorry that took a while, this has been accepted.