MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Aug 20, 2023 11:58:36 GMT

Thoughts have no place in a dog's world. Yet still, he thinks. Questions are not the domain of blades. Yet, he questions. Galar has made him restless. Time's march makes him think. On one of the days off afforded to him, Hitoshi finds himself trotting up to a park where a certain man walks his wolf pack.[break]
Fitting he should look for him there. Some might say he's just another member of that man's pack. Hitoshi doesn't know Clean Wash from Mew. He couldn't even tell someone what the man looked like. As far as Hitoshi's concerned, Cillian Quinn is Rocket. If there's anyone who can help him, guide him, reassure him...[break][break]
Well, it has to be this blonde Galarian. So, Hitoshi seeks him out.[break]
"Oi, Blondie." The same greeting as always. There's no disrespect there. There's warmth in his tone, a hint of a smile on his lips. If this creature had a tail, it would be wagging. "Can I hang out with you? I wanna talk."

Cillian Quinn

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Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

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the harbinger

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POSTED ON Aug 23, 2023 16:07:20 GMT

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Accustomed now to the man's unconventional greeting, Rocket's underboss replies without judgement.[break][break]

"Cillian," he corrects, patient, as if expecting that one day the name might stick. "How can I help you?"[break][break]

Hitoshi Inoue seems in a good mood; it's a pleasant change from their time in Galar, when the sword had been burdened with its need to return to the one who'd wield it. In contrast, a return to Hoenn has brought little but sorrow for Cillian.[break][break]

Lulu Flint is the exception. Her return sheds ironic light among the shadow.[break][break]

The wolves mill around Hitoshi for a moment, curious, before losing interest and spreading out around the park.[break][break]

"Of course. Is this a matter for, mm, sensitive ears only?"[break][break]

This was Rocket's city, and so it would take only an order to keep nosy civilians away.

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Black Dog

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November 9th

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POSTED ON Aug 24, 2023 5:52:15 GMT

"Yeah," the dog agrees, "probably." He's never understood this city. It's still Hoenn. The local flavor, the accents, the cuisine is all still there. The mood is subtly different, and therein lies his misunderstanding. No matter how hard he tries to read the faceless people around them, Hitoshi simply cannot tell if they enjoy their present conditions.[break]
"I guess what I wanna ask is..." Oh how he fumbles over the word. Every syllable bounces off his tongue like they'll fall and break if he misspeaks. Human talk, all the nuance and intricacies of what is said and left unsaid, is hard for him.[break]
"What's Rocket want? It was pretty clear what the Hasegawa were after. Everybody listened to the heads of the family. Brought in their dough, kept their noses clean when the law came sniffin'. Can't really tell what Rocket's after. Doesn't help everybody has a different answer."

Cillian Quinn

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played by

thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

underboss

6'3" height

creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

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POSTED ON Aug 24, 2023 19:53:58 GMT

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Nodding, Cillian sends out his Lucario. With the ability to understand human speech and to sense approaching individuals through their aura, Faolan was the perfect guard dog to ensure their conversation stayed private.[break][break]

"Keep civilians away. No violence, unless they resist."[break][break]

It was different from Kanto, where the orders would be more brutal, yet Faolan doesn't question his master. A soft bark affirms the jackal's understanding, and he begins to patrol the park.[break][break]

Satisfied, Cillian returns his attention to Hitoshi in full.[break][break]

"Boiled down to its bones, the answer is simple: power. Through power comes wealth, freedom. When Kanto fell, we moved to Johto. When our invasion of Johto was repelled, we came here. What, then, do you think we want from Hoenn?"[break][break]

He pauses to give Hitoshi room to ponder the answer, prepared to answer it if the blade could not.

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Teddie

Black Dog

He/Him

November 9th

Ecruteak City

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POSTED ON Aug 25, 2023 7:50:25 GMT

"Control?" That's the only word he can think of. Just like in Galar, when he calls upon Cillian here, Hitoshi gives the man his full attention. He hardly seems to blink. He simply looks up like an expectant, patient student.[break]
"And if Hoenn falls, it's back to Johto? Then maybe to Sinnoh, Galar, and the rest?" Makes perfect sense to him. He's seen the way people get, once they have a taste of power. As someone who can't say he cares for the taste, it's fascinating to watch others scramble for the stuff. They bite, gorge, kill, maim for it. What hateful looks humans give one another.[break]
"What happens if we win?"

Cillian Quinn

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thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

underboss

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creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

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POSTED ON Aug 25, 2023 21:40:37 GMT

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Cillian nods again, encouraging.[break][break]

"Perhaps Johto, perhaps not. We're under different leadership now than we were then." Yet from the meetings he's attended beneath declan walsh's rule, one thing is clear: to subjugate Hoenn remains their number one goal. "But Hoenn will be ours."[break][break]

He speaks without doubt, for there can be no room for it.[break][break]

He will fight. They will win, or he will die.[break][break]

"Walsh will tell us when the time comes. For now, we focus on the present."[break][break]

Perhaps Hitoshi could feel a kinship, then, one dog to another. For as powerful as Cillian's become, there is still the collar of servitude around his neck.

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Teddie

Black Dog

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November 9th

Ecruteak City

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POSTED ON Aug 30, 2023 10:54:08 GMT

The dog nods to its leader. There will be days soon to come where the pack must rally. They must walk together, divide, conquer, kill. Hoenn must fall. That is the boss's ambition. Hitoshi doesn't care what Wash wants. Rocket is more than one person. What stakes him to this place is loyalty to those under this boss. People like the blonde and his husband, whom he resolves to fight alongside.[break]
"What's happening in the present? What's the plan? Feels like all we've done since Galar is wait." His voice is serious, agitated in the way a dog who's been forced to sit for too long might be. "That cat's out there, Blondie. We gotta kill it. The weird moose, too. Before it kills us." He remembers what he saw, there at the tomb - an existential threat. A terrible omen. Fear and hatred. All the evils of the world gathered in one place.[break]
"Has Rocket dealt with stuff like them before? Seems like there's a disaster here every year."

Cillian Quinn

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thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

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6'3" height

creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

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POSTED ON Sept 3, 2023 22:40:39 GMT

Elisabeth Fiorelli likes this

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Cillian's lip twitches at Hitoshi Inoue's all-too-accurate assessment.[break][break]

There was a lot of waiting in Rocket. For a patient man like himself, it was only par for the course. Wars weren't usually won in a matter of days; Kanto had been a fluke, a testament to Rocket's element of surprise.[break][break]

"We have to find it before we can kill it." He doesn't disagree that the creature needs to die. He'd watched it try to tear out his husband's throat. His stake in the other beast's fate is less personal, but after seeing what Wo-chien has done to Elisabeth Fiorelli, he wishes nothing more than to keep it away from those he cares about. "We've got people searching, of course."[break][break]

A lack of further elaboration suggests either no result or a confidentiality.[break][break]

"Rocket's dealt with all kinds of things." There's a note of pride in his tone, now. As much as he often resents them, he also loves Rocket dearly. "Ultra Beasts, Necrozma, Dialga and Palkia under the Triad's influence... it's all a part of living in Hoenn, really. This region's a mess."[break][break]

But it would be theirs, someday.[break][break]

"As to what we're doing now? Business as usual. Waiting for orders."

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Teddie

Black Dog

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November 9th

Ecruteak City

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POSTED ON Sept 5, 2023 9:58:37 GMT

"Maybe when Rocket wins, we could take a vacation. You, Brownie, Yumi, me. Sounds nice." He knows a blade when he sees one. He also knows that a blade has a soul and that it must be nourished, lest it fail the hand that wields it. There's something more, too. Having fought alongside this man in a twenty year dream, he's fond of his presence. Fond of the cool confidence. Fond of his humanity and love for canines.[break][break]
"What's the deal with those dark triad guys? I've seen 'em in the simulation. The professors briefed us on 'em a bit but it didn't really go anywhere. How did palanquin and dial guy end up under their thumbs? Ain't they supposed to be the gods of gods or somethin'?

Cillian Quinn

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thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

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6'3" height

creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

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POSTED ON Sept 11, 2023 4:16:32 GMT

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When Rocket wins.[break][break]

A vague, far-off, uncertain future. But a cause Cillian believes in, and a sentiment that softens the sharpness of his stare.[break][break]

"I'd like that."[break][break]

Once, he'd have struggled to imagine a world without war and duty. Now, he must only remember Galar to understand the joy of freedom. Even if it wouldn't be forever, he'd do anything for a taste of that future.[break][break]

His expression sours back into the mask of an underboss at talk of the Triad.[break][break]

"Dialga and Palkia were being controlled by the Unown. A big chain of them. We shattered the one at Mt. Pyre, and reports from Littleroot echo the same." To answer the first question more directly, Cillian adds, "The Triad are working for Arceus, the Creator. They've labelled Hoenn, our Hoenn, as 'The Origin Point', a threat to all other worlds, and are hell-bent on destroying it and taking out as many of its Avatars as they can." His golden eyes narrow. "So it's personal, to me, seeing as they want me dead. That bastard Winter trapped me in another dimension with the hopes it'd end in my death."[break][break]

With frustration building beneath the surface, Cillian reaches for a cigarette and takes a deep drag, grey smoke mingling with the deep purples of MIASMA.[break][break]

"Maldacena — you'll have heard his voice if you fixed the Pokegear in the sim — is a traitor to them, of sorts. But I still wouldn't trust any of them."[break][break]

Given the Triad's thirst for his blood, it's not hard to see why.

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[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Black Dog

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POSTED ON Sept 11, 2023 9:54:54 GMT

"Sounds like they're just jealous of what Luigi and you've got." He bastardizes the name with the same earnestness he says so many other faux pases. "Well...I'm not any avytar...I'm nobody special, but..." He puts his hands in his pockets, looking away like he's making a confession of love.[break]
"They got a problem with you, they've got a problem with me." The grand pageantry of the cosmos is lost on him. Dialga and Palkia are beings so far removed from Hitoshi Inoue that they might as well be imperceptible. Once, he boasted in the SPECTRA trials about how even a god could die. Even now, he believes that. Were they to appear before him, he would see them as things to fight. Things to kill. Discussion renders them distant concepts, outside of his awareness.[break]
But he tries. Arceus help him, he tries.[break]
"What's the point of RKS? Did we...really have to kill all those people for it? In that little town? To run like rats on a wheel?"

Cillian Quinn

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thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

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creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

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POSTED ON Sept 15, 2023 10:21:57 GMT

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Luigi.[break][break]

Cillian's composure is threatened by a twitch of his lip and a most undignified exhale through his nose as he resists the urge to laugh. Not at Hitoshi Inoue, but at the thought of Lugia herself being confronted with such a faux-pas.[break][break]

Wresting control over himself, he is humbled and flattered by Hitoshi's declaration of loyalty. Rocket expected it from them, but this was different than the camaraderie of a shared cause. This felt more personal.[break][break]

"Thank you," he says, sincere.[break][break]

His countenance shifts cold at the next question. The face of an underboss once more.[break][break]

"They didn't have to die." But it's no expression of remorse. "They got in our way."[break][break]

He despises the 'reward'. The simulation. But going into the Rift, he hadn't known the prize at the end. He'd known only that it was Declan's will to have it in their hands. He'd do it again if ordered to.[break][break]

"Hoenn will only suffer harm so long as it defies us. To have peace, like in Kanto, they must submit."

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[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Teddie

Black Dog

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November 9th

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POSTED ON Nov 21, 2023 4:00:43 GMT

Cogs never before worked turn in his brain. Processing the thoughts, his eyes flutter about. Focused on the blonde one moment, turning to the dogs the next, looking at his own hands. Rapid motion. Questions he doesn't have the words for. All so much. It's a war for concepts. Distant ideals. High-minded matters. Things for people like Wash, Blondie, and Yumi to think about.[break][break]
"But...it's their home." He says in a tone that makes the words sound like an epiphany. "People will fight to the end to defend their homes. How do you...get somebody to just give up everything? Do we just kill everybody if they don't surrender?" At last, a question that makes him uncomfortable. Drowning Hoenn in blood does not sound like victory, even in a simple dog's mind.

Cillian Quinn

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thorn

Gavin Merlino

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

the harbinger

underboss

6'3" height

creatures of habit, carrion flowers, growing from repeated crimes.

awards

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POSTED ON Nov 22, 2023 18:46:29 GMT

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"It is my home, also."
[break][break]

Quietly, he puts words to a feeling he's had since settling down with Tempest Quinn. Galar had never truly been a home to Cillian. It was a birthplace, a childhood, but home was the place he longed to come back to when he was hurt or grieving.
[break][break]

But Hitoshi was not here to listen to sentimentality.
[break][break]

"If they truly care for their homes, they will understand that we offer safety to those who submit. What use has Rocket for empty buildings and burning businesses?" He shakes his head. "None. If they don't surrender, they understand the risk. Such is war."
[break][break]

Though his words are undeniably cruel, he speaks them without affect. This is something he believes, and something he has said before.
[break][break]

"When the League falls, when Rocket reigns, they will prosper."

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[attr="class","tag"]Hitoshi Inoue

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Black Dog

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November 9th

Ecruteak City

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