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6'3" height

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

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TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 16:11:29 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

Gavin's office, by design, is imposing. The metal walls of the submarine house a thick door through which noise cannot penetrate, closed and locked until Elisabeth Fiorelli checks in with Gavin's assistant, Ellis, who types something into his computer and then offers her a charming, boyish smile. He is everything Gavin is not — warm, welcoming, almost sweet as he tells her to, "Go on in."

It's a ruse, of course. Ellis puts people at ease only long enough for them to open the door, and then the pressure sets in. For this office is not only the domain of Gavin Merlino, but of Lugia's avatar. She slumbers, but remains close enough that her presence alone invites an air of discomfort. The metal walls and clinical, impersonal feel of the office do nothing to help.

But in contrast to most summoned to the office of the underboss, Elisabeth would be greeted by a small smile.

On the desk, between them, lies a newspaper with a bold headline. NORMAN JAMESON: SUICIDE SCANDAL.

"Please, sit." The uncomfortable chair has been set aside for something more inviting. She's not in trouble. "Close the door behind you. Have you heard the news?"

He gestures to the headline, amber eyes gleaming.

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

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TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 16:23:20 GMT

[nospaces]

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A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

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Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]Elisabeth obeyed his request, the door closing shut with a soft click behind her.[break][break]

"Tragic, don't you think?" Her voice breezily cut through the pressure of the claustrophobic room as she seated herself opposite Cillian Quinn, her legs crossing delicately as she folded her hands upon her lap. "A shame. They do say absolute power corrupts absolutely, don't they?"[break][break]

A sly, private smile played on her lips as she amended, "Although I have always preferred to believe power reveals one's character, more than anything else." [break][break]

It had been a relief, to see Norman's lifeless body attributed to suicide on the front page of the local papers -- all according to plan. That the damning evidence left on his desk served as ample proof that the man might seek to end his own existence out of shame, rather than face an election cycle riddled with sordid scandal that dragged his entire family through the muck and filth.[break][break]

"But I presume you aren't here to talk to me about our mutual friend, are you?"[break][break]

That was, in all senses of the expression, yesterday's news. And Gavin did not seem a man who wasted time on irrelevant matters.

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even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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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TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 17:29:18 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

"Mm. I'll be sure to let you know the truth of it when I've achieved such power."

Though his tone suggests at humour, the gleam of ambition in his golden gaze is no trick of the light. Gavin would grasp for as much power as the universe would allow him to take, and reach for whatever was beyond it.

He tilts his head at her question. "Yes and no."

He lets her dwell on that answer for a moment as he lifts a cup of tea and drinks. The scent of it, peppermint, overrides the other notes of bleach and cigarette smoke. Gavin's office, like the man himself, is spotless.

The cup clinks softly as he sets it back down.

"Our friend here was important to your evaluation."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

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TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 17:58:06 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","bgtk"]

[attr="class","bgtk-top"]

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A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

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[attr="class","bgtk-mid2"]

[attr="class","bgtk-img"]

[attr="class","bgtk-left"]

Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]"Please do." Though as an underboss and Avatar both, Elisabeth suspected he had power to spare.[break][break]

The scent of peppermint tea leaves drifted pleasantly in the air as Gavin spoke, a singularly fresh and sharp fragrance amidst the spotlessness of the office's interior.[break][break]

"My evaluation," the blonde echoed, her expression growing more somber as her lips pressed into a taut line. Well. The man didn't look displeased, and the task had been accomplished rather cleanly, all things considered.[break][break]

Elisabeth didn't care for false senses of security, however. That mistake had gotten her into far too much misery in the past. Far better to anticipate thorns and briars, and be surprised when the way ahead is clear of them, rather than the other way around.[break][break]

Her mother-in-law's voice whispered back to her: "No one cares what you think and feel, girl. People only care about what you can do for them. That is where respect comes from: what makes you useful. Remember that, and be a useful tool."[break][break]

"Have I adequately proven myself of use, then?" A sincere inquiry, and not an arrogant demand.

[attr="class","bgtk-bot"]

even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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.

awards

7,877 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 18:10:44 GMT

Tempest Quinn and Elisabeth Fiorelli like this

He lets her stew in the silence that spreads after his words, watches her carefully. Notes the way her demeanor shifts from casual to somber, the press of her lips suggesting something akin to worry, perhaps? Discontent?

He waits for her to ask, rather than offering up an answer.

And then, when she does,

"You have." A relief, no doubt, but, "If you hadn't, we'd be having a very different conversation." There would be no tea on the desk, no jests passed between them or the small, genuine smile he'd offered when she opened the door. Gavin's demeanor would have matched that of his cold, professional office.

"You handled yourself very well. I'd almost think you'd done it before." And there it was: the glint in his eyes, a curious tilt of his head. But not a threat, it would seem. His tone bears no thorns as he asks, "You did kill him, didn't you?"

He's not asking about Jameson.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

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4,395 posts

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TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 18:26:50 GMT

BARNABY FINCH likes this

[nospaces]

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A ROSE BY[break]
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would remain as sweet and thorned

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Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]The question fell so easily from Cillian Quinn's lips, it seemed almost insignificant. It rang differently than when BARNABY FINCH had slyly asked Elisabeth that question on the Palentine's Day event, cushioned in different language to make it seem less ugly than what it was.[break][break]

At the time, the question had incensed her. Elisabeth's reaction this time, however, was to laugh.[break][break]

It was a stark sound, rattling and reverberating throughout the confined space with an almost manic energy. In it were echoes of her Misdreavus's girlish cackle, though who had learned the laugh from whom was unclear to Elisabeth, these days.[break][break]

Finally the blonde leaned back in her seat, composure returning with a thin, almost predatory smile -- this one bereft of any uncertainty or displeasure. She was among wolves, now. She could flex her claws, if she was so inclined.[break][break]

"It took years longer than it should have. But yes, yes I did."[break][break]

The admission might have sounded like a tawdry confession, were it not for the sneering pride that crawled out with each decisive word. This was not a purging of Elisabeth's deepest shame, but rather an open reveling in her life's greatest achievement.[break][break]

"If I hadn't, he'd have killed me first."

[attr="class","bgtk-bot"]

even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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.

awards

7,877 posts

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part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 19:17:46 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

Elisabeth laughs, and Gavin doesn't shrink away from the sound. He does not look startled. And when she smiles that predatory smile, the undercurrent of malice in it finds a home in its reflection in Gavin's eyes.

Among wolves, she is indeed.

"Oh, I've no doubt," he agrees. "Yet they lambasted you for it, didn't they, the media? Just as they'll tear our dear Jameson apart."

The disdain for the media is clear in his tone, but they had their uses.

"You'll find no such judgement here."

Whether Gavin means within Rocket or within this office, with him, is unclear.

He leans back in his chair and fills his cup from the pot. "Tea?" he asks, and then laughs. "I promise it's not poisoned."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

awards

4,395 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 22:12:52 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","bgtk"]

[attr="class","bgtk-top"]

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A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

[attr="class","bgtk-mid"]

[attr="class","bgtk-mid2"]

[attr="class","bgtk-img"]

[attr="class","bgtk-left"]

Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]"They disgust me. Reporters, journalists, the entire media industry. It's rotten to its core."[break][break]

It felt safe to admit to the monstrosity that Elisabeth had nurtured within herself, here. Safer than Elisabeth had felt in years, in fact -- safer than she felt even in her little cottage in Petalburg, where she had cultivated everything to her exact preferences and designs.[break][break]

And wasn't that a strange thing to admit to? Insane, almost, to say that she felt safer across from an infamous terrorist than around almost all of Hoenn.[break][break]

Gavin's cool voice cut through her thoughts: "Tea? I promise it's not poisoned."[break][break]

Elisabeth answered Gavin's grim laugh with a smirk of her own, taking a generous sip of the tea as a show of goodwill. "If you wanted me dead, Mr. Merlino, you have far more lethal and interesting weapons at your disposal than I do." Such as those red eyes beyond the window.[break][break]

A pause inserted itself as Elisabeth lowered her cup upon its saucer, before she decided to pursue the thread that Gavin had dangled in front of her minutes prior. "When I was younger and foolish, I attempted to speak to the press about..." [break][break]

The words for what she endured did not come. So she carried on without them.[break][break]

"I attempted to speak privately to a reporter, thinking it might lead to assistance in leaving my high-profile marriage."[break][break]

Another pause, then a flat and emotionless conclusion: "It did not. Much the opposite, in fact. I was painted as a flighty and fragile girl in the papers, unable to handle the mental stresses that came with being the wife of a powerful CEO. A liar, if not that, and that would hardly garner sympathy, would it? So I lost even more freedoms, ones I had taken for granted that I'd had in the first place."[break][break]

The very perception of her sanity had been stolen from her, leaving her husband in charge of all her assets. Her parents' inheritance. Her health. The very rooms she was permitted to walk in and out of. All of it.[break][break]

"He was poised to become the Silph or Stone of Kalos, if you can believe it." A derisive snort. "If I hadn't killed him, at least. He had the cold ambition for it, though, and the capacity for cruelty it'd have taken to succeed."[break][break]

Gone was any trace of the deferent and demure persona that Elisabeth usually preferred to lean into around the higher echelons of the Rocket hierarchy. In its place was something cold, an icy and glacial beauty that resulted in a regal, stiff-necked posture. As she continued to speak, each word dripped with bitter poison from her lips.[break][break]

"Funny how killing a celebrity gets the world's attention, doesn't it? Your motives are unnecessary, just..." She waved a hand airily, exhaling through clenched teeth. "The forbidden thrill of it, really. Of someone who was once untouchable now being reduced to nothing but dirt and rot, left to be fed to worms and maggots. Everyone is so infatuated with death, it's stunning."[break][break]

She laughed again, this time more quietly, as her hands wrapped about the tea cup on the table. "I spent almost a decade begging to be seen. Now that I have been, I'm content enough to be left alone for the most part. I don't care for most people, and I don't think most care for me."[break][break]

Cillian Quinn hadn't asked her for these details. It wasn't strictly necessary for her to share this much of herself with him.[break][break]

Elisabeth knew this. Yet an intimate bond, one that mattered more than any union of flesh or spoken vow, connected her now to this man: that of having killed together, and stained their hands on the blood of the same corpse.[break][break]

I trust you. A resulting truth reflected in a confession that no one else had ever gotten her to say.

[attr="class","bgtk-bot"]

even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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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7,877 posts

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TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 22:31:36 GMT

Tempest Quinn and Elisabeth Fiorelli like this

He listens, enraptured, and sips his tea.

When she's finished, there's a pause as Gavin carefully arranges the words before they pass his lips. Then,

"I never knew the name of my first." He glances down at his hands. His nails are perfectly trimmed, his skin smooth, but the ugly scar through his left hand suggests an unfortunate past. It's a smaller scar on the index finger that seems to capture his attention, white with age. He runs his thumb along it as he speaks, glancing back up at Elisabeth. "I could have asked, I suppose, but I didn't. I was given a choice, you see: my life, or his."

Would Beckett have truly killed him if he hadn't made his choice? Gavin had never asked that, either. It would have broken him, then, to know that he might have chosen wrong.

"You were given a choice, too, I think." He tilts his head, blond locks falling into his eyes where he brushes them away. "Your life, or his. It's simple self-preservation, if you think about it."

The teacup clinks as he sets it down.

"I was told to kill the brother, then. He was an innocent. Could you take such a life, were it asked of you?"

I did, his eyes confess. Do you still feel so safe?

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

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4,395 posts

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part of

TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 22:47:58 GMT

BARNABY FINCH likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","bgtk"]

[attr="class","bgtk-top"]

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A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

[attr="class","bgtk-mid"]

[attr="class","bgtk-mid2"]

[attr="class","bgtk-img"]

[attr="class","bgtk-left"]

Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]"No one is innocent."[break][break]

Those words were not hers, but someone else's -- that of an older woman, a second mother that she had not wanted and whom had not wanted her. A mentor that she had once been unwilling to accept, but whose truths now stung like thorns, their briars embedded in her mind.[break][break]

"I resent the implication that some lives are so precious they cannot know despair, futility, or agony."[break][break]

Because if that is true, then why was I alone thrown to suffer the wrath of wolves? Was my only crime not being innocent enough?[break][break]

"Do you think it is easier, not knowing them? Killing faceless, nameless strangers?" [break][break]

Once more she reclined into her seat, her crystal blue eyes meeting Gavin's evenly. [break][break]

"I struggled with knowing him, at first. Waking every morning, looking him in the eyes, smiling as I produced the next small dose of his eventual demise. It was a slow death, in the end. It took roughly a year to conclude, in a way that could protect myself, at least."[break][break]

A haze filled her gaze for a moment as she recalled her first smuggling mission with BARNABY FINCH. The way she had reveled in the torturing of the cadets that had dared to defy her, that feeling stayed with her. The only reason they had not died was... That was right. Because it would have been sloppy.[break][break]

She had taken some sick pleasure in watching the captives squirm, hadn't she? A thrill that ran through her entire body, the allure of control after a life sorely lacking it so heady in its delight she couldn't resist.[break][break]

"So yes, I could kill such an 'innocent.' And I already have, in some ways. I don't know where my poisons go, you see, Mr. Merlino. My body count, in that regard, keeps rising without my knowledge. I lose no sleep over it, and I don't intend to start now."[break][break]

Her insomnia she attributed to other things. Different, darker things: the specters of her own suffering, loud enough that she didn't have time to grieve someone else's.

[attr="class","bgtk-bot"]

even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

close tab

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.

awards

7,877 posts

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part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 23:09:41 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

No one is innocent.

Had not the many lives taken in Kanto been those of innocents? Had they deserved their cruel fates?

Elisabeth explains herself as Gavin cants his head, seemingly curious to hear the words, and he lets them settle into the grooves of his own twisted sense of morality like a caulk between tiles. Perhaps they hadn't deserved it, but had he?

Gavin tents his fingers beneath his chin.

"No," he says, with a small shake of his head. "It's not their names that haunt me. It's their faces. It's knowing that there are those who might grieve their loss. They never have names in the nightmares, even if I knew them."

Not even those he loved the most. It was just their faces, and the gun, and the slow spread of blood.

Do you think we could ever be good? It's a question that's been posed to him on more than one occasion, but the answer always ends the same: No. Only better than before.

"I don't wish for Rocket to return to what it was." Most in Hoenn have heard the stories. "But we'll always be the monsters. Idealism gets no results."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

awards

4,395 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @elisabeth

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 23:29:24 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","bgtk"]

[attr="class","bgtk-top"]

[attr="class","bgtk-top2"]

A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

[attr="class","bgtk-mid"]

[attr="class","bgtk-mid2"]

[attr="class","bgtk-img"]

[attr="class","bgtk-left"]

Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]His response was unexpected, somber almost, as Cillian Quinn spoke of hauntings and doomed idealism.[break][break]

"Everyone grieves, in the end. It is not a unique or special thing, for loss always comes one way or another. Some grief just comes swifter than others."[break][break]

Hearing herself speak her own thoughts aloud, however, gave Elisabeth pause. It was one thing to marinate upon them in silence, protected in the confines of her own mind, and quite another to breathe life into them with her own voice. Somehow they sounded more extreme when compared to what Gavin himself -- an actual terrorist -- was saying about grief, about regret, about loss.[break][break]

Elisabeth believed everything she was saying wholeheartedly, and yet there was a nagging uncertainty that questioned if, in reality, she was capable of living in strict accordance to these beliefs.[break][break]

Her own actions at S.P.E.C.T.R.A. had betrayed the trace of damnable weakness that remained within her heart, hadn't they? That persistent desire to be good. For all the good it ever did her, ingrained as it was in her since childhood, sending her straight into the lion's den to be eaten alive.[break][break]

For a moment Elisabeth focused upon the scars on Gavin's hands, a silent understanding forming as she nodded, hesitant before she murmured, "The person I regret killing most is not my husband. Yet I will grant you that she haunts me, in some ways, in that very manner that you describe. There are days I cannot bear her judgment."[break][break]

That of the person I used to be.[break][break]

A merciful change of topic presented itself, and Elisabeth took it.[break][break]

"I have heard of Kanto's era of Rocket. It sounded..." There was no good answer here, so Elisabeth shifted course. "It sounds as if things have improved, since then. I am content to support the efforts being made, such as they are."

[attr="class","bgtk-bot"]

even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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.

awards

7,877 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Apr 20, 2022 23:48:29 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

Gavin catches her staring at the scars on his hands. After a brief shift of his posture, as if considering, he lays his hand out on the desk palm-up.

"A punishment," he explains. "In Kanto."

He turns his hand over to show that the scar marks both sides where the blade had been driven straight through his hand. His dominant hand, she may have noticed; Gavin has always suspected the injury was meant to damn him. It had taken back-alley surgery and nearly a year of self-imposed therapy to restore movement to the hand, and still the scar tissue restricted full range.

"Things have improved," he agrees, retracting his hand to once again pick up the teacup and lift it to his lips. Cooling peppermint soothes an ache in his throat.

"Did you seek us out for refuge?" he wonders. "Sanctuary? Or, perhaps, something else...?"

Elisabeth Fiorelli

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

Bury me in the roses and rot; I'll come back thorned.

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POSTED ON Apr 21, 2022 0:21:05 GMT

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A ROSE BY[break]
ANY NAME

would remain as sweet and thorned

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Cillian Quinn

+Outfit[break]
+Hairstyle

[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]Rocket Recruitment III

[attr="class","bgtk-post"]Elisabeth's hand absently traced her left thigh, the scarred burn tissue hidden beneath her skirts pressing against heavy white fabric as she listened to Gavin's explanation. Other scars, small and subtly rendered, found themselves on her body in other difficult to view places. Her husband had made sure of that, for the sake of optics alone.[break][break]

What Gavin was displaying for her was no show-and-tell of his storied history, but a demonstration. With it came a reminder of what Rocket could be, and had been, under a different regime. The result was damning enough for Elisabeth to intake a sharp breath, her hand curling against her thigh in sympathy pain.[break][break]

A temptation to offer an apology was fiercely bitten back. Pity for someone like Gavin was insulting. Instead, she looked up at him and merely said, "I am glad you survived it."[break][break]

"Did you seek us out for refuge? Sanctuary? Or, perhaps, something else...?"[break][break]

The spotlight shifted back to Elisabeth, uncomfortable in its bright illumination. The answer could be viewed as that -- refuge -- certainly. Elisabeth had inherited vast fortune, the shares of an enormous company, and infamy beyond her wildest dreams in Kalos. If she had wished, she could have remained as something of a dark celebrity, overseeing the work of Bortiforte Industries that her husband had left behind.[break][break]

That had not been the life she had chosen, however. It had been the life Elisabeth had run from, breaking the company that her husband had loved more than anyone else in the world into a thousand tiny pieces, scattering its technology to the four winds for his greedy rivals to devour. She had sold the county that had once granted her the title of Dowager Countess Bortiforte, shedding both it and the surname that had burdened her for almost ten years.[break][break]

Elisabeth could have come to Hoenn and merely been a florist. She could have lived a peaceful life, undisturbed for the most part, living an idyllic existence within Petalburg City.[break][break]

"We spoke of innocence, before." The blonde woman lifted a hand, tending to a stray hair or two that had escaped her bun to tuck it neatly back into place. "The innocent are blind, in my estimation. They wander the world unaware of what crawls in the shadows and in the darkness, falsely believing that they walk safely in the light of day."[break][break]

The immense pressure of Lugia's stare bored in through the window, unseen: the office almost shuddering from its weight.[break][break]

"I am no longer blind. And thus I understand something important, something that prevents me from living a quiet civilian life."[break][break]

She tilted her head forwards, looking at Cillian Quinn coolly as her hands once more found themselves poised in her lap.[break][break]

"Power shapes the world. And the people with the most power are the monsters, Mr. Merlino, because they set their own limits." A finger idly twirled the rosette wedding band on her left hand, the latch for its poison opening and subtly closing. "Control is quite an intoxicating thing, I think. I have no interest in being a sleeping lamb, unaware of the wolves that seek to shape my own destiny for me."[break][break]

A smile, almost as radiant as the one she had offered their mark not so long ago, flashed across Elisabeth's lips: its beauty devoid of warmth.[break][break]

"And I rather like being a wolf, as it happens. I... enjoy it."

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even in the ruins, flowers blossom and flourish

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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.

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