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Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!

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POSTED ON Apr 23, 2023 19:44:08 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","skullhover"]

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skulloverlap"]BUT HOLD YOUR BREATH, GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE SHOW?

[attr="class","skullbody"]"That ship sailed on Mt. Pyre."[break][break]

For as even as Isaac's voice was, a secret fury simmered beneath. Perhaps his Pokemon felt it as well. Miyuki and Tarkus redoubled their efforts to demolish the wall of rubble before him, Head Smashes reducing boulders to mere silt that Miyuki's Psychic power allowed her to dust away.[break][break]

"They made their choice that day. Everyone from Grunts to Underbosses made their objections known. But Walsh wanted what Walsh wanted, so that ship sailed real quick." With a last rush of exertion, Tarkus finished battering the wall down. Dazed from his constant Head Smashes, Isaac recalled the T-Rex to let him rest. "And now we're here."[break][break]

The caravan was theirs to command now. Isaac sent out Rampage the Rhyhorn to take the reins that were once being pulled by League transport Pokemon. "Say, Rubes. What's we end up getting out of that whole mess, anyway?" he asked, patting the spot next to the carriage. Last time Lee sat there, it had been storytime with Isaac. Did the same fate await Ruby?[break][break]

"Sure doesn't seem like we mastered the secrets of Tera Crystals any faster than the League did. And without any actual hold over the rift, it's not like us finding the Clockwork Kingdom first made much difference." Disgust bled into his voice. What they were sold as violence with a purpose had shifted into sound and fury, signifying nothing. "Far as I can tell, doing things the higher-ups' way just lead to a bunch of defections and a whole lotta trauma for the poor saps that stuck around."[break][break]

"Ain't that something?"

[break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","skullcredits"]TAIKO!

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played by

Alicia Jewel

she/her

October 18

Pyrite Town, Orre

bisexual

"Freelancer" (Rocket)

Elite

102 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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TAG WITH @rubygarcia

POSTED ON Apr 24, 2023 19:59:16 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","ruby"]

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby's brow rose again. Delphi, restless, had gone from guarding the exit to helping take down the wall of rubble. Once it was cleared, Isaac recalled his Pokémon, sat on the back of the wagon, and patted the seat next to him.

[break][break]"What, is it Storytime With Isaac again?" Ruby asked with no shortage of sardonicism. Unlike Lee, though, she wasn't being threatened, so she recalled Grimm and Delphi, sent out a Bastiodon to help pull the wagon, and sat down next to Isaac, silently urging him to get on with whatever he had to say.

[break][break]Well, it wasn't quite storytime. Ruby narrowed her eyes a bit as she pieced together what Isaac was saying.

[break][break]"Are you trying to lecture me on how fucked-up Rocket is?" she asked. "You think I don't already know that? Hell, that's the point I was trying to make. You try to tell them that getting fucked up over killing someone isn't weak, they'd laugh you out of the room at best." She wasn't in the mood to think of the "at worst" scenarios.

[attr="class","rubytag"]Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","rubypokes"]
DELPHI ♀ rough skin / swords dance, dragon rush, bulldoze, fire fang, poison jab, crunch

GRIMM ♀ sheer force / swords dance, double team, stone axe, x-scissor, close combat, aerial ace

ATHENA ♀ sturdy / protect, wide guard, block, magic coat, metal burst, rock tomb

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator

he/him/his

April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

949 height

Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!

awards

4,311 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

POSTED ON Apr 24, 2023 23:13:48 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","skullhover"]

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skulloverlap"]BUT HOLD YOUR BREATH, GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE SHOW?

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Nah, nah. We both know they're fucked up," Isaac said, running a hand across the back of the caravan they pulled. A huge, wooden box, full of balls of slime that'd get thrown and used up in the span of five minutes. It felt like an appropriate metaphor for the conflict at hand. "Just . . ."[break][break]

"They keep telling us this is strength. Take what we want, when we want, by any means we want. If we have to kill for it, all the better. But . . . c'mon, Rubes. It's been a year, and what do we have to show for any of it?" He sighed, leaning back against the caravan. "Between the goodwill they pissed away and the big-shot defectors, Rocket's seemed weaker than ever. I sure as hell don't feel any stronger. And I can tell you don't, either."[break][break]

"Maybe the psychopaths running the show feel better about themselves. They slaughtered their way through Hoenn's smallest, least defended town, and couldn't even hold it after. The glory days of Kanto, ladies and gentlemen."[break][break]

It felt dangerous talking like this, but when the words flowed out from Isaac he couldn't bring himself to stop. How else was he supposed to come to grips with a world gone mad?[break][break]

"You see it too, right?" Isaac turned to face Ruby now, desperation shining in his remaining eye. "The longer this all goes on, the less sense any of it makes."[break][break]

[break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","skullcredits"]TAIKO!

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played by

Alicia Jewel

she/her

October 18

Pyrite Town, Orre

bisexual

"Freelancer" (Rocket)

Elite

102 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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460 posts

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TAG WITH @rubygarcia

POSTED ON Apr 25, 2023 21:12:18 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","ruby"]

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby's jaw tightened when Isaac said he could tell that Ruby didn't feel any stronger. Dammit, he was right. Wasn't all this hardship, all this suffering, supposed to make her tougher? Why did it just make her feel so tired of everything? It looked like Isaac was, too, but he still had the energy to complain about it. Hell, he was saying things that would probably get his ass kicked by Rocket's execs if they heard him.

[break][break]"It does make sense," Ruby bit out. "Nobody in their right mind thinks Rocket are the good guys. We could show all the goodwill in the world, and people would still think we're a bunch of terrorists. So why bother trying to act like anything else? Why not strike while the iron's hot and grab everything we can? Just because it didn't all go according to plan doesn't mean it doesn't make sense."

[attr="class","rubytag"]Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","rubypokes"]
DELPHI ♀ rough skin / swords dance, dragon rush, bulldoze, fire fang, poison jab, crunch

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator

he/him/his

April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

949 height

Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!

awards

4,311 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

POSTED ON Apr 25, 2023 22:35:02 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","skullhover"]

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skulloverlap"]BUT HOLD YOUR BREATH, GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE SHOW?

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Because the iron's too hot, and all we did was burn our asses on it."[break][break]

Maybe Ruby was trying to hush him down for his own good, not wanting him to have to answer to the higher ups if word of his wandering eye got out. Maybe she was trying to hush him down for her own good, because to admit Rocket's weakness was to open the door to far darker thoughts. It certainly wasn't because she was a true believe; the look in her eye made that abundantly clear.[break][break]

"Look. I'm not trying to argue people would accept a better Rocket." He'd argue that Rocket should strive to be better anyway, but that was a whole different can of worms. "I'm trying to argue that Rocket cares more about being worse than being effective. A bunch of crusty old psychopaths want to get their rocks off reliving their glory days, and they don't give a shit if we're all gonna die because of it."[break][break]

The bandage was off now. "They were waging a perfectly good guerilla war. And they tossed it away to do what, exactly? Try to outmuscle a region that's had an eye out on our bullshit for half a decade now? They're an entire region. We're a couple of assholes on a boat. And we keep throwing our whole weight at them as if we can go tit for tat. With how much smaller we are, every resource, every asset, every person is worth its weight in gold. And now we're bleeding all of those out."[break][break]

Admins. Beasts. Avatars. People who once could have turned the tides for Rocket were now bailing overboard. The mask they wore atop their intentions had gotten torn off in inglorious fashion. They blew their shot at invading the mainland by failing to conquer Hoenn's smallest, least defended town, and it would surely be less easy to invade next time. Despite this, Rocket had no intention of righting the ship and stemming the flood.[break][break]

"Not everything's gonna go according to plan. But are we gonna learn anything from this failure? Or just keep pretending it was a win?"

[break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","skullcredits"]TAIKO!

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played by

Alicia Jewel

she/her

October 18

Pyrite Town, Orre

bisexual

"Freelancer" (Rocket)

Elite

102 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

460 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @rubygarcia

POSTED ON Apr 26, 2023 21:24:26 GMT

Aurelie Lefevre likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","ruby"]

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Okay, that was a new one. These iron metaphors were starting to remind her of Aurelie Lefevre.

[break][break]She scowled and watched the caverns move behind them. Walsh really hadn't given a damn if his mineral-mining operation could have doomed the whole region, including his own people. And now, they were fighting on an open battlefield. Sure, they had operations like this going to steal the League's supplies and generally screw them over, but Rocket's presence here was no secret.

[break][break]"What the hell are we supposed to do about it?" Ruby finally asked. "Walk right up to the higher-ups and tell them their plans suck?" She let out a short, sardonic laugh. "Yeah, that'll go great for both of us. You think they'll bury us next to each other, or will they just toss our bodies out to sea?"

[break][break]She realized something. "Besides, isn't half of why we're here to get more resources so we don't bleed our asses dry?"

[break][break]She had no idea what Rocket was planning to do with these "Seal Stones," but they wouldn't be going after them if they weren't worth something, right?

[attr="class","rubytag"]Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","rubypokes"]
DELPHI ♀ rough skin / swords dance, dragon rush, bulldoze, fire fang, poison jab, crunch

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator

he/him/his

April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

949 height

Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!

awards

4,311 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

POSTED ON Apr 27, 2023 0:14:23 GMT

illeana reyes likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","skullhover"]

[attr="class","skullimg"]

[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skulloverlap"]BUT HOLD YOUR BREATH, GUESS WHO'S RUNNING THE SHOW?

[attr="class","skullbody"]Maybe if it hadn't been for Isaac's meeting with illeana reyes, he would have bought the same line Ruby had. After all, some flavor of magic rock or another seemed to make up half of Hoenn's natural resources. However, with what she told him about the Origin Point and Arceus' powers being locked away, he knew all too well what stakes were being fought for here.[break][break]

He could barely trust Walsh not to get them killed. How could he trust him to share the power of God itself?[break][break]

"That's the rub, huh?" Isaac asked, instead focusing on commiserating with Ruby. "We follow their crazy plans, we die. We tell them what we think of those plans, we die. Starting to feel like no matter what choice we make, it all ends up the same way."[break][break]

Unless they took a page out of their friend Johanna Joy's book. Isaac wasn't going to say that, of course, but when both of them had an example that was still fresh in their minds . . .[break][break]

". . . Guess that just means, if they're not gonna give a shit, we're just gonna have to keep looking out for each other, huh?"

[break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","skullcredits"]TAIKO!

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played by

Alicia Jewel

she/her

October 18

Pyrite Town, Orre

bisexual

"Freelancer" (Rocket)

Elite

102 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

460 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @rubygarcia

POSTED ON Apr 27, 2023 19:38:53 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","ruby"]

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Isaac didn't say the name out loud, but Ruby had been thinking of Johanna since Isaac had mentioned defectors. She'd left Rocket and gotten a cushy job as a Gym Leader right near League HQ. She wasn't the only one who'd jumped ship, either. Walsh had sent out a message about one of the Admin's betrayals and put a big target on his head, and Ruby knew at least one Beast and a scientist had gone running to the League earlier this year. Who knew how many other grunts had followed in their footsteps?

[break][break]Was it worth the risk? How was someone supposed to live with Rocket's blade at their back for the rest of their life? What extent would Rocket go to for revenge? Would they target their loved ones, too? The thought made Ruby's stomach turn. Even if she was just some grunt, she couldn't put Jade at risk like that. Not after everything she'd fought for.

[break][break]"I'm not going to let this kill me," Ruby said. "I'll fight. I'll get stronger. I'm not letting anything happen to me or the people I actually give a damn about."

[break][break]She looked to Isaac with grim, determined eyes during that last sentence. She wasn't the mushy-feely type, and she hated the idea of relying on anyone. But maybe that look was her way of saying she'd be there, no matter what suicidal plan Rocket cooked up next. If she couldn't leave, then she could survive. That would be her defiance.

[attr="class","rubytag"]Isaac Merlo

[attr="class","rubypokes"]
DELPHI ♀ rough skin / swords dance, dragon rush, bulldoze, fire fang, poison jab, crunch

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator

he/him/his

April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

949 height

Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!

awards

4,311 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo