Celice Artia

Silis Artia is an English private investigator working for the European agency St. Crystelle Offices. In 2002, she infiltrates the religious cult SAMPLE as Miss Rucott Diaz - only to forcibly wind up the temporary 'wife' of Bride, the cult's leader. Under the influence of drugs, she is herded aboard the luxury ship Exit, where she eventually regains her senses and takes her revenge upon Bride.

Personality
Silis has some degree of confidence in her skills as a professional, enough so that she feels comfortable enough to quietly make fun of the SAMPLE believers when she's in the church.

Though initially shattered by the events she witnesses at the hands of SAMPLE, Silis is ultimately a strong-willed individual, declaring to Bride that all the trials he'd put her through had only made her stronger in the end, and she is completely willing to get revenge on him for his monstrosities.

After her ordeal, Silis is filled with nothing but hatred for SAMPLE.

Chronology
Silis grew up in England and attended Hillroam university. After graduating she immediately found employment with St. Crystelle Offices, a European investigation agency.

One month in Summer 2002, Silis' employer taps her shoulder and says that she has a new assignment. A client approached the agency because their son had joined a religious organization and eventually ceased regular contact with his parents. She is to go undercover inside this organization and investigate. He hands her a CD with the details and tells her to give it a look over before deciding whether or not to take the job. It isn't something he'd force anyone to do.

Silis hesitates and then boots up the CD on her computer, learning all about the organization called SAMPLE. It partakes in child abuse - worshipping their screams of pain or their death itself in gratitude for the child "taking on all the misfortune in the world." She decides to take the job and approaches the organization as Miss Rucott Diaz. The process is surprisingly easy; the only question she is asked is who referred her to the organization.

Three days with the organization pass, and Silis is finally allowed to meet the leader of the organization. Dressed in the red and black garb of SAMPLE, Silis waits alongside other SAMPLE members inside a church in Tokyo, Japan for the leader to enter.

When the moon reaches its apex, a young man looking rather like a lab technician enters the room, accompanied by other men and women and a dozen children who are clad in white. He prattles admiringly over video games, and asks the totally silent congregation to 'settle down' before admitting that as an introvert he is very nervous to be surrounded by everyone at this time. He announces that they have a newcomer and he asks the believers to welcome Miss Rucott to the fold with a round of applause.

Silis steps forward at his gesturing and thinks to herself ''what the heck is this? ''As she makes fun of the SAMPLE members in her head, she thanks the man - who she assumes is a secretary since he doesn't seem much of a leader. To herself, she thinks that it's as if these eccentrics started off as some sort of school club - though with all the kids and elderly folks that doesn't seem to make much sense.

The man informs the congregation that Silis grew up in England, and that her hobby is baking cookies, babbling that he can bake cookies too but is too afraid to let others try them. Silis silently calls him an idiot, and again thinks that this will be an "easy job" as she suppresses her smile.

The man's next words make her freeze. He reveals that 'Rucott' graduated from Hillroam University - and Silis struggles to keep her face still as she processes what's just happened - Hillroam University is her own alma mater, not the alma mater of "Rucott Diaz." The man continues - after graduating, she found a job with St. Crystelle Offices, and earned her colleagues' trust by doing both legal and illegal jobs. Silis' heart races as the man casually mentions details of her own life just like that, realizing that SAMPLE had somehow figured out she was an undercover agent.

Silis feels sick to her stomach, and although she trembles she manages to keep her face neutral. They must be testing her. The man says that she is here for an undercover job, and praises her for bravely storming the unknown. He invites the crowd to give her another round of applause and Silis grows more and more confused as the believers shower her in adoring compliments.

The man finally introduces himself as the leader of SAMPLE, and at her bewilderment he introduces himself again as Bride ands says it is a pleasure to make her acquaintance. Silis' mask shatters and she looks at him in both fear and doubt. He informs her that their faith is rooted in their incomplete holy book, and he takes out his binder to show her its contents. It is blank halfway through, indicating that more will eventually be written inside it.

As the man rambles on, Silis listens uncomprehendingly and wonders how a half-baked idiot like him could be their leader. Silis tries and fails to ask a question, not sure what to ask first. Bride grins, claps his hands, and declares that he'll now temporarily become the leader. His two secretaries hand him two syringes, which he plunges into his neck simultaneously. Silis lets out a silent scream, and he assures her that it's just dextrose. He can't handle being a leader without his brain full of sugars. Bride removes the syringes and hands them back to the women before walking up to the altar in the middle of the room. He removes his glasses, and Silis realizes that the atmosphere had completely changed.

Bride leans back and moans, and Silis can hear his voice crack. When his moans cease, Silis looks around and sees that the believers are no longer smiling. Silis concludes that she has "messed up," that she's made a horrible decision. There is something very 'off' about these people. Bride turns and smiles with emotionless eyes. Silis lets out a soft scream, her sense of reality slowly slipping. Before her stood the shy young man from before, yet now he stands a completely different person. Bride says, "Welcome former Silis Artia, now reborn as Rucott Diaz."

A different person. She wanted to think he was a different person. He had shattered and reformed, like a mixed up Rubik's Cube instantly righting itself. He'd become complete with dextrose. Silis is filled with anxiety - it is as if she has been transported to some sort of alien world. Bride spreads his arms wide and invites the congregation to sing. He waves his hands like a conductor, and the children begin singing tunelessly. Looking at the children, Silis can see that they are blindfolded and have headphones clamped over their ears. Chains restrain their feet, and their hands are bound behind their backs.

Silis can feel no emotion from their voices, but sometime about them remind her of "desperate yelling" and she then comes to a realization. The children are screaming. She is overwhelmed at the children and their songs, and she calls the congregation bastards, wondering what on earth is wrong with them as they stand their listening in euphora. Bride lowers his hands and the children stop singing. Silis can see that there is joy written across his face before he covers his face with his hands and lowers his head, chuckling.

She finds everything about this man - his every movement, his every word - abhorrent. Yet at the same time, she understands that her life is now at his and the others' mercy. She helplessly wishes that this is all some sort of bad joke, filled with fear at the thought of Bride. Bride quietly smiles and approaches Silis, who has frozen on the spot. With a heavy tone, he informs her that she will have to temporarily marry him and remain his wife until they find the "true bride." Once that is accomplished, she and Bride will divorce and she will be free to die a peaceful death.

A terrifying sense of loss hits Silis like a truck as she comprehends her situation. Before she can compose herself, the church doors burst open and a group of seven or eight Southeast Asian men run inside, shouting and brandishing weapons in their hands. Silis lets out a small scream and collapses in a heap in the corner of the room. Bride tells Silis that these men are not their allies - they've had trouble with them before. Bride had hoped they'd all get along. Such a pity. He gives an order to his congregation, and...

The next thirty minutes are filled with carnage. On her knees, Silis watches the believers engage the men in battle with serene smiles gracing their faces even as they suffer critical wounds. Bride recites a speech as the bloodbath dies down, and steps over to Silis' side. He says that it's not that the believers do not feel pain - it's just that they "make it so that pain is not something antagonizing." He then inserts the contents of a syringe into Silis' neck.

With the bloodbath over, Bride picks the unresponsive Silis up and helps her out of the church, chattering to her - though it is unclear if she can hear him. He lays her out on the back seat of his car, and after talking with a bandaged man gets in the back seat as well, signalling the driver to drive away.

By August, Bride has 'married' Silis (at least in the eyes of the church) and the two along with around two hundred SAMPLE members prepare to board the luxury ship Exit in Yokohama Harbor. Bride talks to Silis but the woman is still under the influence of whatever drugs he's injected her with. Barely conscious, she responds to everything he says with a monotone "...yes." During his one-sided conversation with her, Bride concludes that her yeses mean that she will allow him to kill her, and he thanks her for an excellent answer. Bride then kisses her, at which Silis briefly regains a hold of her senses and weakly screams.

One of Bride's secretaries knocks her unconscious, and she collapses into Bride's arms.

One the first night of the cruise, Silis lies upon the bed in hers and Bride's suit room, holding her change of clothing. Little by little, she has returned to her regular self; she is cognizant of her situation but has no way to move forward, to escape. She foggily replays the events of the church in her head again and again, and pauses when she hears Bride speaking to his fellow members in the room. The moment she considers escaping, her mind inadvertently replays those memories over and over. And so Silis can do nothing but listen to Bride's conversation, which consists mostly of immortals and their man Viralesque aboard the Entrance.

As the serious business of the conversation comes to a close, Bride attempts to leap upon the bed and fails, hitting the corner of it with his side. After some flustered excuses, he holds out a hand to Silis and says they ought to be off to the reception party. He's sure it will cheer her up. He reminds her that she only has a few days left, so as his wife he hopes that she will experience as much pain as possible.

Bride and Silis attend the reception party, where Luchino B. Campanella performs magic tricks for the diners. Luchino involves Sylvie Lumiere (one of the diners) in a magic trick, and she smiles when he hands her a rose. Bride - who'd been taping the trick with his camcorder - mumbles to Silis that isn't it delightful that Sylvie still finds joy in life after three hundred years of living? Silis, still dazed, murmurs a vague reply.

On the second day of the truise, Bride confers with the believers in charge of communications in his suite room. Walking up to Silis, he brushes aside her bands and says that since he doesn't know how much longer she has, he'd like to say now that he's very much in love with her. He whispers to her without malice nor aggression that he'd like for her to suffer beautifully.

One the third night of the cruise, Silis continues to lie upon their bed - only now she is dressed in a white gown patterned in red and black. Bride listens to the gunfire and screams over his radio, expressing surprise that seajackers were infiltrating the ship. Bride presses a switch in his hand, and the headphones of the children in the room switch on, playing the children's own screams. The children reflexively begin singing their tuneless song. Bride and the children at some point vacate the room, leaving Silis alone.

The songs and screams of the children trigger Silis' memories of the church bloodbath (she is still not quite herself) in vivid detail (vivid because this was the first time since that day she'd heard the song in person). When she recalls the moment Bride inserted a syringe into her neck, Silis screams and bolts upright, feeling like her heart is about to burst out of her chest. The memories have shocked her back into sanity, and she looks around and takes stock of her current situation.

Silis forces herself to ignore her sudden fatigue, and she gets out of bed to open the luggage Bride had packed for her. After changing into a red and black underdress, she carefully opens the door and looks around for danger. Confirming that nobody is in sight, she exits the room and runs through the hallway in search of Sylvie (her memories of the past few days are hazy but intact), intending to both help her and ask for her help. Help to either escape from Bride...or 'take care' of him.

As she runs through the hallways, she hears a man on the P.A. system introduce himself as part of the Mask Makers who are currently taking over the ship, and she recognizes his voice as "that bastard's voice." That is to say, Bride's voice.

Silis eventually sees Bride flung over the rails of Exit, and runs over to him as he clings to the metal railings. She reaches him in time and grabs his arms, preventing him from falling into the ocean. Silis informs him that he's lighter than he looks, and that she wants to tell him something important - not him, the "insane cult leader," but him, the "insane husband who took [her] as his wife." She says that people can only grow stronger because they experience pain, and she says sarcastically that it's thanks to what Bride did to her that she is standing on the deck now, 'completely fine.'

Silis smirks and says that her next words are for the 'insane cult leader.' With a smile of pure elation, she orders him to die painlessly like the weakling he is, and holds onto his arms until the Entrance skids against the Exit once more. Although she doesn't hear Bride scream, she is satisfied to see the blood splatter as his arms (Severed by the impact) are flung onto the deck of the ship.

In the aftermath of the incident, Silis overhears an upset Claudia Walken rage at learning that her friend Illness has been kidnapped, declaring that she'll hire a private detective to go find her. She approaches them and mentions that she'd overheard Claudia is in need of a private investigator. Claudia asks doubtfully if Silis is a detective, and Silis smiles and says that she is not and that her name is Rucott. However, she knows a woman by the name of Silis who works at a huge investigation office. The office will look into anything so long as you pay them. And besides...she (as Rucott) has some experience with the people in red in black.

As she speaks, she hides her true self with a "fake smile," full of nothing but hatred for SAMPLE.

The narrative at the end of 2002 - B Side says that Silis eventually rises in the ranks of her company thanks to her connections to Claudia and the accompanying fees.

Trivia

 * According to Bride, Silis' hobby is baking cookies.