which I REALLY appreciate being a sound board as I wrote this! Want more context of names dropped her? Go to her account and play her Horizons series, starting with Babies in Care-A-Lot! It's also Father's Day, so what better day to do this?
"You know, I'm sure I've done this at some point in the past. But this time, this time I feel the full context is needed; just why is Samantha my daughter, instead of locked up for eternity? Why is someone so evil allowed to be the daughter of a God, and live the good life? Well, dear reader, you've heard of deeds she's done, maybe seen them if you go play the Horizons game series: Wink! Yes, I literally winked as I said it. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what drove her to do those deeds? Did you ever ask, "What was Samantha like before she took over Care-A-Lot?" I did. I did the same day I took her in.
I'm sure the last thing to cross your mind about her was "If she's one of the Chosen Ones, what was her Crest the Destroyer wished to taint?" You're well aware for Syrus, it was Courage, which the Destroyer twisted into Fear. Likewise, Samantha's twin sibling was connected to Knowledge, but it was twisted into ignorance; Samantha's Crest is Love. Easily as strong as Courage; to do what's right, even when you worry about the consequences, is to be brave. To reach out to others and form a meaningful connection that makes you both happier and stronger is important to. Most assume that the anti-thesis of Love is to Hate. Love and hate are still both you expressing a emotional connection to another, positive or negative. No...
The anti-thesis of Love is Apathy. To feel nothing towards another.
You see, Gatomon are a respected, and in some cases, feared Adult level, Champion for some of us, Digimon because despite their size, they can punch a truck down 4 streets if desired, and they possess one of the only forms of hypnosis in the Digital World. They are feared for this. So, imagine if you grew up, with everyone in the world avoiding you because they just wouldn't trust you. They fear at any moment, you'll take control, and make them do the unthinkable, or even take their own lives.
Samantha lived with this fear, this apathy, directed at her every single day.
Per her Crest, she desperately wanted to reach out to someone, ANYONE, and have someone reach back, to smile, to say hello, to look at her as a friend, not a monster. And no matter how she tried, she was only faced with more people running, throwing things at her, or trying to attack her out of fear of her. Then she heard of the Beast of the Wastes, of the destruction and lives it was claiming. Desperate for anyone to want to be her friend, Samantha decided she would tame the beast. If her efforts thus far failed, them surely she would finally make friends as a hero; right?
At first, she really did just use her hypnosis to want to actually help Merlin. They were friends at first. Weakening him meant he didn't need to worry about destroying everything anymore, and Samantha eased off on the hypnosis. But as Care-A-Lot STILL doubted her, everyone STILL didn't want to get closer and know her, with Merlin as the only shoulder to cry on, the Destroyer started to taint her Crest of Love via Merlin. His is just raw power, so his fragment gave hers the strength to start twisting her.
She snapped and turned her only friend into the mindless doll the soon to be hero met. And she truly broke, losing all belief in herself because she hurt the only friend she had. And as you do when you have nobody to talk to, she blamed everyone for it else; it was their fault she broke the only friend she had. In truth, the fragment of Apethy within her was enhanced by Merlin’s own. Should two pieces of a whole draw near, they can combine their strength and have a greater impact; I know from experience.
And this lead to the Care-A-Lot Incident. Her actions only proved to the Digimon who already feared her how dangerous she could be. They avoided her even worse now and began to flee her in terror, some even attacked her outright. After this began, she fled back to Care-A-Lot, taking over as their queen to hide away in a world that was so much easier to deny reality in. Then, one day, Syrus came. She was wary, of course, but figured the bears would take care of him, having promised to use her caregoo to spread kindness and friendship to everyone, everywhere. She didn't care how, just knew that apathy and anger was so much worse.
Next, well, I'm sure anyone listening to this story knows what happened next to her. She was deposed, and sent back to the Digital World, where she regrouped in Toy Town. They took Merlin away from her. And by the time Syrus came to Care-A-Lot, it had been so long that Merlin had come to believe what he did once freed, and came to hate her. Syrus fixed him, and then broke him all over again by turning him on her. A fact that broke her already broken heart again. As she ran in the rain, she tripped, fell in the mud and just cried, too emotionally drained to stand. She always regretted breaking Merlin, and was just happy he was still there physically. Now, now she was alone. Again.
She was all but destroyed emotionally by her loss of the only person she could even begin to call friend, Merlin, and in that dark moment, began to work on how she would get her revenge on the fiend that took him from her, who made Merlin hate her. She turned her anger towards Syrus… And on the rest of the world, too. Nobody ever cared, nobody ever showed her love, everyone only saw her for Cat's Eye Hypnotism. Fine. If they want to see it so bad, she'll make it all they see. The pure intentions of the new hero allowed the Destroyer to finally have full control over her lonely soul, taking hold of her mind.
Well… You don’t need me to tell you how horribly everything went from there. Too many victims, too many crimes, too much for one woman’s soul to bear… Thankfully, Syrus was able to finally stop her, and saw fit to lock her up eternally. But this, to one who’s living in such a scenario, understand this is the greatest cruelty of all. Digimon cannot die of natural causes; they have to be stabbed, shot, crushed, and so forth, but even then they have no reason to fear, for their data will simply reform as an egg and life will start over. Imprisonment, now that can be indefinite… She didn’t even really need to be witness to Merlin’s clash with her (At the time) brother, Samuel. She felt it.
Then, Merlin visited her in her cell. She was overjoyed to hear Merlin speak that he finally overcame his fears; and then he broke her a third time by telling her she was at fault for it. I fear the poor girl at long last had the last bit of love she had crumble away like a sand castle on the beach. She was terrified her own shard and Samuel's weren't done with the world; she FELT what happened to her brother. She realised, in that moment of darkness, as the last of her light was fading, 'Someday, I'll break like him; like you. And I'll have nothing left.' Her broken laughter was her laughing at her own hollow void. Her face was shadowed, so Merlin couldn't see the eyes of a woman who had finally lost everything she had left.
She might very well have been lost, had I not met Syrus to thank him on behalf of all the Gods who still lived, and convinced him to let me see her. As a result, I ignored how Merlin didn't want them meeting. And then I broke their minds as I admitted I wanted to rehabilitate her. Even Samantha was stunned into silence. I knew Syrus and Merlin held her fate in their paws; but I looked upon her, and I realized… She was about to face exactly what I myself did. Isolation against my will, nobody willing to help, to reach out… I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let her suffer as I had. It took time to convince the pair, long hours of debates, of appeasing Merlin’s anger towards her, and finally proving my Domains were of Loyalty, of being committed to others I give my word to and will stand beside even at cost to myself, and of Trickery, deceptions of all manner from a simple ‘magic’ trick to a well plotted revenge scheme, for them to feel safe knowing I am immune to hypnosis and mind control.
Merlin wasn’t convinced, but he was willing to let me try, as was Syrus. One of the benefits of being a loyal God is you agree to any punishment or fallout should you fail to keep your word, and assure the mortals you will stand by that word. Naturally, as I was the one allowed to open Samantha’s cuffs, she tried to hypnotize me; I just chuckled, pat her head, and told her her eyes were beautiful, but sad. I think if she had a Gatomon’s trademark gloves and tail ring, she’d have tried to tear me apart. But I was committed. Though… As we rode my carrage back to my manor, she rightfully stabbed me with the barbs I’m sure she held in her whole life.
“If the Gods cared about me and my situation, where the hell were you?! Why are you only NOW showing up?!”
That… Hurt, rightly so in fact. Deeper than any fang, burned worse than any venom, sharper than any blade… That cut me to my bones. Her anger was warranted, however much it stung, and I wanted to be transparent with her. So I told her the truth. That like her, I had committed a crime grave enough the rest of the Pantheon wished me disposed of, but not killed. How I had to watch the Destroyer kill so many of my own. To leave so many absent holes where we should have been to aid mortals as they needed us. She clearly doubted me, but I think she wasn’t prepared that I would be truthful upfront.
Even after I brought her into the manor, she still tried a few times to hypnotize the maids that greeted her to my manor; she made the cutest little pout when she realized they were as immune as I was… And then, then she met Poppy for the first time. It was also likely the first hug she was given by anyone who wasn’t brainwashed and ordered to do so. I had told Poppy who was coming, of course, and asked she not only care for them as they did me, but to also try and become friends with her.
No matter what I, Poppy or my maids did, for a long time we thought she would continue to see us with suspicion, doubt, always expecting the moment we’d turn on her like the others in the world. But as they say, time heals all wounds. The fact she was finally being spoken to, looked at, greeted, asked to play and so on, I think helped her remember how to love, a little bit each day. And as I grew closer with her, she finally started to smile, sometimes even laugh. A week after the Destroyer’s Apathy had at long been snuffed out like a stubborn candle, I admitted she didn’t need me anymore as a reform officer… But I had grown to need her, and she as a father figure she loved.
From that point on, with Syrus and Merlin’s witness and consent, I made adopting her official. She wants to enjoy having a family, a place that wants her, and a home that fills her with joy, and she can give her boundless love to. That, dear reader, is the truth of Samantha’s past, and how she fell so far, but found a way to love once more, the way she always wanted at the start. Now, she’s a fully grown woman who gets to enjoy living the ABDL lifestyle every day.
She’s also been able to finally sit down with Syrus, and let the past be the past; but I’m proud she asked him should anything ever happen, and she begins to act as she had before, that he will stop her, no matter what he must do. She has also chosen that her friendship as it was when she first met Merlin is gone and over; she’s decided to take the approach to try and befriend him all over again, as who they are now, free of trauma and the Destroyer using them like pieces on a chessboard. She understands he wants space, and really, I’m proud of her that she’s willing to let him set the pace. She’s done with hypnosis as an ‘instant friend, just add eye contact’ method. And I’m happy to have a daughter.”
