"And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is."
- Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983 (A Left-Handed Commencement Address)

Design Notes (Regular Form)

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• She wears red lipstick and black eyeshadow (which cannot be seen unless her mask is removed).
• The wisp-like shadows on her shoulder and left arm take the shape of demonic dragon faces.
• The skull emblem on the right side of her chest is replaced by Neo's Dream crest.
• Her ears are pointed and stick out of tears ripped in the sides of her mask. She has three earrings on the left side (one stud in the ear lobe and two spike studs through her cartilage).
• She has sharp fangs where her canines are on both the top and bottom of her mouth. One of the bottom fangs can be drawn sticking out of her mouth even if it's closed.
• She has metal studs across her belt.
• The first and last wristbands on her left arm have metal spikes rather than the standard studs.

Design Notes (X Form)

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• (Note this LadyDevimon X form is my own version and differs greatly from the official design.)
• She wears red or black lipstick and black eyeshadow (which cannot be seen unless her mask is removed).
• Volée and Zerdrücken are replaced by a black wraith dragon and silver mech dragon respectively. The first stays primarily behind her and paralyzes foes with its many eyes and performs sneak-attacks, the latter is more of a "shield" that generates forcefields with its wings and launches frontal assaults. Their "tails" where they attach to her arm can be extended or shortened according to their will, allowing them to stretch over greater distances, or retract entirely into their containers.
• Her left hand has large, red dragon-like claws and an "X" branded over the top.
• She has large horns and pointed ears that and stick out of tears ripped in the top and sides of her mask. She has three earrings on the left side (one stud in the ear lobe and two spike studs through her cartilage). They can be ommitted or left on like in her regular form.
• All teeth across her outfit are capable of opening and closing like mouths and contain a dark, void like space that destroys life-matter and data.
• She has several glowing red eyes of differing sizes across her collar bone area and eyes along the top and outside of her armor on the left side.

Misc. Notes

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• Though she is an Ultimate level Digimon, her power is comparable to that of a Mega. She can and has taken down Mega level Digimon on her own before, including Queenie.
• She can shift freely between her regular and X forms, but appears most often in her regular form.

Trivia

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• Absolutely loves to read and collect reading materials, especially sci-fi/fantasty novels and accademic journals.
• Would do anything to protect her "kids," and goes out of her way to try to make them happy and comfortable.
• Acts as Neo and El's parental figure and guardian. She's responsible for raising the two of them from early on in their lives, given that Neo's biological parents were pretty much absent even in her childhood due to the busy nature of their careers. Lady has provided most of the support, guidance, and care for Neo and Elta as they've grown up under her watchful eye.
• Enjoys "flipping the bird" at people and adopting other human quirks that she's picked up from Neo.
• Speaks with a German accent. It becomes especially noticeable when she's tired or angry.

Origin

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Born into the Digital world during a time of strife, and when processes were especially erratic, Lady was lucky to survive even into her In-Training level as Nyaromon. She struggled through her early life, managing to scrape by the skin of her teeth, and growing ever wary and cognizant of her surroundings, and the other Digimon she shared such an inhospitable homeland with. It had become standard, and the "common sense" there for the inhabitants to band together and form raiding parties in order to survive, looting and stockpiling whatever resources they could get their hands on, and forming strict heirarchies to organize themselves. Often Digimon within similar levels would take the opportunities to stick together, though on occasion, higher level Digimon would start taking in lower level Digimon to train them in order to bolster greater future fighting power for their party in the long-run. These sorts of strategies never really settled with Lady, and she was always nervous about the hostility she constantly saw other Digimon in this area display towards each other. Though initially in one of these smaller, much more fragile "In-Training" groups, she was taken in by a flock of Digimon consisting of mostly Nightmare Soldiers. Here, pushed initially into a subordinate, low-ranking position, she evolved into Salamon, but at that point had not yet given up the hope of trying to be kind to other Digimon, in hopes of forming alliances through trust, instead of each trying to best their own personal gain. In the end, she was heavily punished for such "childish" behavior, and had to conform to the rule of the land, with every Digimon being out only for themselves.

She learned this lesson harshly, with rigid training and demonstrations of power put on by the higher level Digimon at the time, who were determined to keep their place in the heirarchy. Sticking to a very literal "survival of the fittest" sort of model, it became clear to her that she would have to best them somehow, or forever suffer under their rule. Bitter, frustrated, and forced to take on a callous attitude to protect herself, she learned to watch her own back, and gave up on the prospect of ever being able to rely on anyone else's help.

She trained hard, but grew ever more distant and lonely, and further accustomed to the cruel law of the land. Faster than she could develop brute strength, she began showing promise as a competent, and ruthless strategist. Her wit and proposals to execute carefully planned and calculated attacks caught the attention of the unit commanders, who invested in her as a future asset. Sooner or later, with more training, and determination to prove herself worthy of their respect, she would hone her battling skills to that of a terrible warrior. With that, she eventually digivolved into BlackGatomon, and had already began to benefeit from advancing up the ranks of the Flock. Using her now cut-throat and merciless tactics to gain the upper hand over others, and formulate elaborate schemes, she developed a confident attitude to fully take charge of situations. At her Ultimate level, as a LadyDevimon, she became one of the primary commanders of the army herself, and was responsible for leading many raids on other Digimon groups.

By then, she had a fierce reputation for her strategies and plans of attack, and though was very strict with her soldiers, was also equally as protective of them. But unlike the other commanders, didn't believe in unnecessary sacrifices, which sometimes put her at odds with the other commanders.

Past

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With her position, she began to push back on the status quo. Though indeed strict, something in the back of her mind, whether concious or not, put her at odds with the oppressive, violent ways of living, and she refused to rule with the same iron fist of fear her fellow commanders used to keep their soldiers in check. Though intimidating and powerful, Lady's methods focused much more on playing to each individuals strengths, in order to best benefeit the unit as a whole. She put together what she hoped would eventually become a more even web of connectivity, with different members filling different roles as necessary and aiding their collective survival, rather than adhering to a rigid heirarchy that demanded domination over others to keep afloat. Much more frequently, she took in younger Digimon in need of protection--Ara and Oti among them--incorporating them into her group and expanding her ranks--but also the number of mouths to feed.

The other commanders were wary of her approach and her attempts to change the structure they fought to maintain. Fearing it might undermine their central hold on the power, they wanted to rid themselves of her influence.

This was further complicated by shifts in the enviornment that continuously put resources in short supply. More and more land seemed to wither, with data corroding to a point where no life could be sustained in the soils. And even within more influential Digimon groups such as theirs, with control over a vast territory, survival became the source of instability and in-fighting. To simply sustain themselves, their units had to travel further and further in order to secure resources, and there an opportunity presented itself, the commanders thought, to properly discard of their previous "prodigy."

New areas had to be scouted and infiltrated. That was a given, but they handed the job to Lady, thinking it a good "suicide mission" that would either seperate her from the rest of them enough to warrant an official division of their units, or kill her somewhere in the process.

Of course she knew the risks when they assigned her the job. And of course she thought, with all their disagreements, they might very well be trying to destroy her. But it was, also, the opportunity they all needed, whether she liked it or not. She could leave them forever, she thought--she could take her unit away and try to start a new life for them. Perhaps, she hoped, somewhere at the bottom of her heart, they could be free of the suffering they'd endured for so long, in the wastelands, and the darkness.

She wasted no time preparing and departing. And the further they traveled, the more hopeful she grew that she might be able to finally leave that all behind her...

Things went wrong one fateful night, when her unit was conducting a raid on a rival group to secure more supplies for themselves. Because somehow the enemies broke through her defensive lines, to the weaker Digimon she kept safe further back. She ordered her soldiers to double back for them, leading the charge herself as she always did. But she was badly injured in the rush, intercepting an attack meant to wipe out some of those lower level Digimon under her command. When she fell, panic swept through her ranks, and her commanders took the loss and quickly retreated. She was abandoned as a lost cause when they fled, her actions declared a sign of "weakness" by the other higher-ups.

Lady was only narrowly able to escape herself, and fled into the wilderness heavily wounded and heartbroken. She endured continuous attacks by other Digimon who feared her because of her typing and species, or who had heard rumors of Nightmare Soldier invaders from the dark lands. Helpless, and without hope, soon she'd spent the last of her energy and could not continue on. Having had no opportunity to rest to allow her wounds to recover, she was ready to accept that she really was "weak," deserving of her fate due to her "faulty" decision to try to defend the other Digimon, and a failure for being unable to lead them to victory. Lost, she collapsed, and the world went dark again.

But she was found in time by Elta, who had been scouting the local area for any signs of other Digimon activity. He and his human partner Neo took her in, and the two of them decided to protect Lady and try to help her recover.

At the time, she was incredibly suspicious of Neo's intentions. Even the child's wordless gestures, like leaving her books to read while she recovered, she refused to talk to them even while they cared for her, seething instead in silence over the shock of being abandoned by her unit. All she could think of was plotting her revenge--recovering her strength, hunting them down, and somehow making them feel as awful as she did. Gone were the dreams she'd had of trying to make a new life for them, replaced instead with the stinging sense of betrayal. She brushed off any attempts Neo or Elta made to be friendly towards her, finding it especially hard to trust anyone other than herself, ever again.

Still, she sensed in them a great power. While she waited, she devised that it had something to do with the strange crest and device that Neo carried with her, and the connection she shared with El. And knowing she had nowhere else to go, even when she did recover and left them without a word, she thought of studying the duo to gain a better understanding of that power--perhaps how she might even harness it for herself to exact her revenge.

Once back to her full strength, though she had fully come to terms with the fact that her flock would never accept her back, she still felt completely lost and without cause. Very wary of El and Neo's intentions still, she continued to wonder why they had bothered to help her, as she was still so accustomed to her old ways of life, and the necessity of violence and cruelty that she had grown up with in order to survive. At first, she focused only on the idea of getting back at her flock, out of spite and grief from having been left to die on her own. But without clear direction, she would follow and keep watch on El and Neo for a little while after, trying to sort things out in her head, and growing, over time, closer to them. More fond of them. And when she saw them attacked by a rampaging Digimon that they could not fight back against, she swooped in and saved them.

That seemed to open the door again to her heart. She began to talk to the two of them, spend more time around them, reluctant to leave them to fend for themselves when they had given everything to help her in her time of need.

Eventually, she began to see now that she could finally leave her past behind her. That she did not need to close a chapter with revenge, but simply accept the beauty of the present. She decided to adopt Neo and Elta as her newfound flock and family, realizing that she now had the opportunity to escape the only possible lifestyle she'd known before. Having been so helpless herself and reminded of how insecure she'd been as an In-Training and Rookie level Digimon herself, she decided once again that she would use her strength not to terrorize, but help Digimon who were unable to defend themselves.

Present

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Lady has stayed with Neo and Elta to this very day, and has grown not only close to, but very protective of them. She may come off as standoffish and intimidating to others, but is very resourceful and knowledgeable, thanks to her time as a commanding officer in the field. As an Ultimate level, she sees it as her duty to look out after Elta and Neo, and goes out of her way to care for them as a motherly figure. She can usually be found fighting alongside them, or helping to coach Elta on honing his own techniques. Her added power and tactical abilities make them a formidable team all on their own, and they have seen many a battle through together.

She understands, particularly given how terrible she was in the past, why other Digimon tend to be very cautious around her, and refuse to trust her or are outright terrified of her because of her typing and species. Because she has tough skin, she doesn't really mind it all that much, but finds it irritating when she's in the middle of risking her life for them. Though she's gotten better at controlling it after meeting Neo and Elta, her temper can still be quick to flare sometimes, but she's in the habit now of taking flights by herself to calm down and think. She also enjoys doing recon with El, and assessing various areas in the digiworld and gathering data on them.

She also greatly enjoys reading, a past-time she began to pick up when she was first injured and recovering, when her movement was greatly restricted. Neo tries to bring her new books from the human world whenever she can to add to her ever-growing collection. She's taken to collecting them inside the tunnels and caves of Mt. Specter, where she's set up her own labs to amass and study data. It is greatly due to Lady's research that the gang discovers El might be able to digivolve to two different Champion levels other than Jazardmon--Pteramon X and Tylomon X--to help him fight much more effectively at lower altitudes and underwater respectively. She also uncovers a phenomenon she dubs as the Parallel Shift, where El can swap between his other two Champion levels without having to de-digivolve and then re-digivolve again. Later, she gains that ability to perform the Parallel Shift herself, changing between her LadyDevimon and LadyDevimon X forms.

Like Neo, she also tries to research and keep an eye on the connection between the Digital and human worlds, and has become suspicious over recent threads of strange activity and mishaps. Unable at the moment to find the real source of this, she's determined to keep working to try to prevent some major disaster from happening, or preparing for when trouble finally does rear its head...