About

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Mallory Caito is one of the main characters of VERIS. She is the oldest child of Sebastian Caito and Elizabeth Emerton and the older sister of Leonardo Emerton. She is the Queen of Naitura as well as the head of its capital faction, Canalog.

 Background

Mal was born in Naitura year 2023, the same year the VERIS was created. She was raised by both her parents until the age of seven when her mother was banished for treason, leaving her father as her sole guardian. Three years later, after he was assassinated, Mal took the throne at just ten years old becoming the youngest ruler in Naituran history. While she still received basic tutoring from her attendees her time mostly involved both managing her country and helping raise her baby brother Leo.

Mal became the most popular ruler in a long time, particularly in the South of Naitura, due to her friendly personality and lack of authoritarian enforcement, leading people to view her more like one of them. However, the factions in the North did not share this opinion of her, most notably the people of Boreni. This is partly due to her family, who had been notoriously brutal towards many of them in terms of law enforcement, but they also viewed her more interactive behaviour as a flimsy attempt to hide all the wrongdoings of her heritage.

Mal took the death of her father extremely hard, especially as it meant she immediately had to take his place at such a young age causing her lots of unnecessary stress and pressure at such a young age. She works tirelessly to find the person responsible for his death. In fact, most of NEO's more controversial acts have come as a result of Mal's reaction to new information that appeared to be connected to her father's murderer.

Appearance

Mal has a slim yet toned figure with a modest bust and fairly wide hips. Her skin is pale and mostly smooth except for a scar on the left side of her neck. She has striking green eyes identical to her fathers. Her most striking feature is her flame red hair that falls just to her chest, that she occasionally ties up in either a bun or a long ponytail. In the VERIS, her hair turns to a more crimson shade of red.

Mal's wardrobe varies, but every single outfit she wears is both casual an comfortable. Her favourite outfit consists of a pair of light blue jeans and one of various different tops, all red. For more formal occasions, her favourite attire is a red dress that falls all the way to her feet. In the VERIS, she wears a full bodysuit just like Leo's, only with red markings instead of blue. She also wears a pair of black heel jet boots.

Personality

Mal is an extremely warm, open and friendly individual. As queen, she always wanted to be someone that had a close relationship with her people and that working folk would be able to approach without fear or apprehension, particularly young children. She is very much an extrovert and treats everyone she talks to as if they're her best friend. Mal makes sure to show care and passion for her people and their livelihoods and makes it her top priority to ensure that her and her goverment is doing enough for them to be happy and thriving.

Mal is very self-confident in both her appearance and her abilities as both a fighter and at her favourite hobbies, most notably dancing. However, unlike her brother, her confidence never crosses over into arrogance. Instead she uses it as a springboard to meet her expectations and not let the pressures of her job get to her.

Mal's open nature is not to be confused with naivety, however. She is never afraid to put her foot down or deliver a firm hand to those she finds distasteful.

However, because she wears her heart on her sleeve it also leads to her being extremely rash. When she reacts to a situation, she allows her emotions to cloud her judgement and give orders with zero thought or rationality, particularly when it relates to her father's death. This is the main reason why the Northern factions despise her as her rashness is normally at their expense.

Another fault of hers is her hotheadedness. Similarly to Leo, whilst she doesn't actively seek fighting or violence as a solution, she is very quick to lash out when angered. She also takes a lot of joy in beating down her enemies, thought while it is mostly constrained, she has been known to go too far when her emotions overtake her.

Mal is very competitive, from simple things like games & dancing with her friends to competing with her brother to see how many more enemies she can defeat then him. She is still a good sport however, usually not taking a loss too far and instead using competition to motivate her at her goals.

Perhaps Mal's biggest fault however is her laziness. Whilst she is willing to put in the work necessary to be queen and genuinely wants to provide a suitable living environment for her people she often struggles to do more than the bare minimum as opposed to going the extra mile. This is likely due to having been in the role from such a young age, feeling extremely burned out from when her mind was much more vulnerable as a result. This is also why her academic ability isn't as high as her ability perhaps tauts, as she often fails to put in the effort to expand her knowledge when not absolutely necessary.

Relationships

Leo Emerton

Leo has been Mal's only family throughout most of her life and her entire time as Queen. As a result, despite thier polar opposite personalities, the two have always been closer with each other than anyone else. Whilst most people find Leo's introversies and habits to be outlandish, Mal finds them endearing as she knows he often doesn't mean anything by them. However, she is also not afraid to scold Leo when she feels his behaviour is genuinely unacceptable, most notably after he causes Amelia to storm out of his lab from his sheer ignorance.

While both extremely strong on their own, Leo and Mal are considered to be the ultimate duo in Naitura. Their years of solitary company allow them to perfectly understand each other, despite their contrasting personalities. They also use their strengths to counter the other's weaknesses. Mal's outgoing and affectionate persona helps Leo get in touch with his emotions to help interact with both Naiturans and NEO collegues as well as push him to his extreme on the battlefield and Leo's sharp mind and generally unfazable demeanor allows him to reign in his sister when her emotions overtake her.

Sebastian Caito

Mal was extremely close with her father whilst he was still alive. Her philosophies about rule of law and international collaboration mostly stem from his teachings and influence. Sebastian was the one who invented his daughter's nanotec as well as provided her her own private area of the VERIS for her own lesiure and unwinding. Mal took his death extremely hard, both because of the responsiblity she had been handed and the intentions of his murderer to take the most important person in her life to wreck the order he had worked so hard to keep.

Despite her love for her father, even she couldn't help but find a lot of his interventionist policies extremely damaging. As a result, she actively tries to stray away from issuing NEO orders unless absolutely necessary, which admitedly became increasingly more difficult since the appearance of the Valren.

Elizabeth Emerton

Even before her banishment, Elizabeth never spent much time with her husband, or indeed her daughter. Mal's only real cherished memory with her was playing together on the beach just the two of them before she fell asleep in her arms at sunset. She greatly resents how distant the two became since, and combined with her father's anger and negative reinforcement onto his daughter upon discovering her treason, she has no real drive to unbanish or try and locate her. Though she does hold a soft longing than one day they can meet and make ammends.

Graham McCleish

Graham acts as Mal's chief advisor and guardian figure, as well as helping her to raise Leo. In many ways, Graham acts as an overprotective subject to her, constantly referring to her with titles such as "her Grace" and using other royal customs, as well as keeping her away from as many harmful NEO missions as he can allow. The latter of which is usually more justified, as Mal herself knows that her death is vital to Bolusta in breaking the factions of Naitura apart. Both of these things still irritate her to no end, however, often leading her to scold her general for continued interference.

Despite her annoyances, Graham's multitude of successful missions and strategies (both with and without Leo) as well as his continued loyalty have made him one of Mal's most trusted allies. She knows that most of his habits and concerns are products of the times he grew up in and does not hold them against him. She also often accepts his concerns over her safety despite her strength, both due to the ever present threat she is under and the promise he made to her father.

Sienna Rispoli

Mal met Sienna whilst she was working for the Casaleri government during celebrations to celebrate the anniversary of the formation of the Casalerian republic.

Amelia Kelly

After Amelia fell out with Leo, Mal was the one who consoled her and was the first to make her feel at home within the Palace. She gave her her own room in the Palace that turned into a eden-style garden in the VERIS that she could come to to relax. She was also the one who convinced Leo to give her another chance at being his pupil.

After settling into her new role, the two of them became even closer. Mal very much views Amelia as a little sister and encourages her to see the palace as her second home. The two tend to spend more time with each other than anyone else, playing games, listening to music or even Amelia working on more inventions whilst Mal watches from a distance.

Vicente Delgado

Mal took a shine to Vicente from the moment she met him during his inaguration. Not only did she find him very attractive but she greatly admired his background and the way he rose to power, as well as how much he cared for his mother. She kept in close contact with him after, helping him with running his faction and just chatting and hanging out when they had free time.

The two continued to grow closer and closer to each other, culminating in the night of Mal's birthday where they kissed at her party and spent the night together after. Mal believed this would lead to the two of them to start dating from then on, but the next morning, Vicente stated he wasn't ready to enter another relationship yet as he was still overcoming his feelings for his ex, Reina. Mal became extremely hurt by this and distanced herself from Vicente for the next few months, partly to get over her own feelings and partly out of spite.

After the two resumed casual contact, their relationship returned to almost exactly how it'd been prior, although less flirtacious on both ends. They both enjoy hanging out together and hold a deep respect for each other. They both relate to each other extremely strongly, with the two of them both struggling with the expectations of their faction and always having to be a symbol of hope for them.

Polina Florakis

Mal heard of Polina's exploits in Portamares about a year after she became a warrior and immediately wanted to meet her. The two shared a friendly dinner, greatly enjoying each other's company and especially discussing their many exploits in combat. Mal offered Polina the position of royal advisor, believing Polina's experience would greatly come in handy with keeping peace. with Polina refusing, preferring to stay as an independent mercenary. They decided to settle their disputes with a duel, which Polina won. Mal kept to her end of the bargain and let Polina go, but swore she would not lose to Polina again, kickstarting their rivalry

Mal is constantly competing with Polina, her previous loss fueling her greatly to keep the upper hand on her. The two have dueled several times since with mixed results, but have both greatly enjoyed the competition between them. Mal also refuses to use her tech to help her against Polina in order to keep the fight as balanced as possible, choosing only to use it to craft her weapon of choice for the fight instead.

Mal's rule has been something of a conflict to Polina. Whilst she admires her dedication to her people, her more pacifistic nature leads her to take issure with some of the more agressive decisions Mal makes as ruler. Meanwhile, whilst Mal respects Polina's loyalty to her principles more than someone like Leo, she does think that she can sometimes be naive when it comes to allowing her enemies to escape alive. Nevertheless, they share a deep respect for each other's strength and struggles, particularly the harsh criticism they both can get from dissenters

Sylvestre Lamont

Similarly to Vicente, Mal took to Sylvestre immediately upon meeting him at his inaguration. She found him extremely sweet and likeable and made sure to keep reassuring him of her support for the whole meeting. Again, like Vicente, the two stayed in close contact as she gave him help and advice, but this time the two were more distant when it came to each other's personal lives, yet still maintained a good friendship.

Mal finds Sylvestre extremely endearing and easy to talk to. She's deeply sympathetic to his struggles regarding his gender and overall confidence and is always determined to raise his self belief, even with just the smallest compliment or word of reassurance. Meanwhile, Sylvestre finds her just as easy to approach and greatly appreciates how friendly she is, making him really enjoy hanging around with her. Mal greatly enjoys teasing him too, particularly when it comes to romantic matters, enjoying how continually flustered she can make him with even the smallest comment. She makes sure it is never conflated as bullying, however, constantly insisting it's all good fun and that she doesn't really mean anything by it.

Abilities & Fighting Style

Mal is widely considered to be the strongest fighter in all of Naitura. This is mainly due to her exclusive nanotechnology, gifted to her by her father before he died. She uses machines embedded in her hands that link to her brain to control the nanomachines to envelop ojects with them or make various types of weapons out of them. She also got Leo to add a feature to set any number of them on fire at will. The large number of nanobots (well over 1 million) make her powers extremely strong, allowing her to manipulate objects far larger than her to help in either combat or rescuing civilians as well as taking on both large numbers of opponents and enemies much physically stronger than her. Mal's preffered style usually involved using her nanotec to wear opponents down and when they're close using weapons to finish them off

Mal underwent the same combat training as Leo. She is trained in eight different martial arts types, though she herself struggles to recall any of them by name. She is not quite as strong or fast as her brother, but she is more acrobatic and slightly more durable as well.

Mal's intellect isn't even comparable to her brother's, but she is by no means a slacker either. She is compentant in all eight languages present in South Naitura as she almost always needs to communicate with her other factions. She does speak small amounts in the Northern factions too but they are more lacking, with her often relying on Leo to fill in the gaps for her. Mal's academics are mostly fairly lacking, but her mental strength comes in reading her opponents - she is fantastic at reading people's demeanour and body language and using it to determine their true intentions