[attr="class","jaytop"]

[attr="class","littlejay"]

would it have worked on him?

[break][break] jayden wondered.

[break][break] there are few things that jayden holds more dear than the bounds of family, yet his own understanding of it is so entombed deeply with his view of rocket that it makes it difficult to see where one thing begins and the other ends. if his brother had been alive, and they'd been threatened to torture him, would he have sacrificed for him?

[break][break] likely not.

[break][break] alexei had - and still continued to be - the cause of many of his nightmares, after all. both awake and sleeping now that the interdream mist filled the rifts.

[break][break] jayden nods as his friend explains his reasoning for joining, somehow feeling a little bit calmer than he had before. still, always the need for curiosity strikes him, and he can't help but ask his mentor for questions, having starved himself of it for so long.

[break][break] a flicker of surprise enters his gaze at his words, though.

[break][break] here? in rocket?

[break][break] "who?"

[break][break] he wracked his brain to think of any rockets who shared his mentor's angled features, or blond hair. ana fell? Elisabeth Fiorelli? no, impossible. neither option seemed to fit.

[break][break] he frowned.

[break][break] whoever it was wasn't in the rocket files, much like Cillian Quinn hadn't been. otherwise, he would've known.

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break]
post postdorm

☉

[attr="class","jaytop"]

[attr="class","littlejay"]

oh.

[break][break] there are not many things that stun the rocket admin into silence, especially in matters concerning team rocket. his thoughts are constantly full of them, working on the various puzzle pieces and fitting them together, simply to avoid a moment such as this. a moment where he is caught blind-sided, unattuned, off-kilter.

[break][break] "i never knew."

[break][break] his confession is an honest one, though there wasn't ever anything that he had intentionally hid from his mentor. from rocket. his thoughts whirl as he tries to place two-and-two together, tries to slide Lulu Flint and Cillian Quinn by each other, to see what they look like. where the similarities lay.

[break][break] his own brother shared white hair, not black; would they have been able to tell the difference if alexei was resurrected from the dead?

[break][break] then:

[break][break] saoirse. cillian.

[break][break] it's then that the moments slide together. fitting.

[break][break] "you're both from galar, then."

[break][break] he should've known, and he hates himself for not knowing.

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break]
post postdorm

☉

[attr="class","jaytop"]

[attr="class","littlejay"]

the accent is as clear as day, and enough to drag jayden back to his childhood. the whimsical forest surrounding ballonea, and the words of the locals there. back before things had become complicated and difficult, back before he —

[break][break] "wow," he murmured. "it's perfect."

[break][break] well - it should've been, after years of cultivating it. jayden wasn't sure why he was surprised. his own accent occasionally bled through, but because he had spent so much of his life in kanto and hoenn, under his father's thumb no less, it very rarely appeared. much like dmitri, jayden was an import to the galarian life and customs in a way that cäcilia had never been.

[break][break] it's only then that it all clicks together.

[break][break] "the quinns." he stands up then, as if it's all coming together. his father had done some business with them, or at least for them, once upon a time. plus, it was impossible to have ridden a corvilknight taxi without at least having seen the name. "you're famous."

[break][break] but even more than that, the realization brought a new sense of familiarity — of softness. the same way that it had when he had realized that fern delaney was from stow-in-side.

[break][break] gently:

[break][break] "no wonder you had to hide."

[break][break] it made sense, after all. the quinns were spread far and wide; if he had wanted to escape their influence, there would have been no other way to hide than to disappear completely.

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break]
post postdorm

☉

[attr="class","jaytop"]

[attr="class","littlejay"]

"rowan?"

[break][break] a flicker of surprise enters jayden's expression, but it's quickly overshadowed by a veil of anger and hurt across his features. the memory of his friend's betrayal was still fresh in his mind, the wounds still raw.

[break][break] not for the first time, hatred for the league and all they had taken from rocket grows. it festers deep within him, taking root like a sapling in his chest and blossoming into a dark, twisted flower.

[break][break] in that moment, everything fell into place. why Cillian Quinn had hid this from rocket all this time, why he'd only decided to reveal it now, and what exactly was at stake.

[break][break] "if i ever see him," he vows with unwavering determination. "i'll kill him."

[break][break] heat laced through his words, drawing emotion where there usually was none. his accent took on a fervent quality, tinged with the galarian tone that now binded him and Cillian Quinn together.

[break][break] "he didn't deserve a brother like you."

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break]
post postdorm

☉

[attr="class","jaytop"]

[attr="class","littlejay"]

'but you do.'

[break][break] his gaze flits upwards towards his mentor, towards his brother. his throat is thick with emotion.

[break][break] his own brother never regarded him with such warmth, if the look in cillian's eyes could even be called that. but there were so many ways in which cillian had been a better brother to him than alexei ever had. cillian, who had never laid a hand on him. cillian, who had always been there to protect him. cillian, who had understood him in a way that his own family never had.

[break][break] "it's okay," he says, hands curled against the fingers on his shoulder. "thank you for telling me."

[break][break] "brother."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Cillian Quinn [break]
post postdorm

☉