Crossroads

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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Wanderer

The Liberator

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April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

I've got a, I've got a

Pocket fulla sunshine

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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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Isaac Merlo

Crossroads

POSTED ON Sept 9, 2023 19:04:48 GMT

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

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

[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac wasn't Superman. If the world wanted people crushed beneath its feet, there was little he could do to stop it. That didn't mean he wouldn't try and make a difference where he could.[break][break]

It didn't mean he wouldn't hope Rocket could make a difference.[break][break]

Kouji wasn't wrong about what role Rocket filled. People with nowhere else to go. People with no hope of making it by legit. People who were shunned by society. People who shunned society, because they gave it a try and found it wanting. It wasn't anything new or novel. As Isaac learned from many of the people he'd met, it was basically the main draw of the street gang life.[break][break]

Rocket was the biggest, the baddest, and in many ways the best. It wasn't a surprise that, like an apex predator in new territory, it pushed out those weaker groups where its long shadow fell. However, there was a key difference. Street gangs committed small time crimes to get by, sometimes setting their sights higher when they felt big enough. Rocket was an international terrorist unit wearing a street gang's face.[break][break]

"Are we dragging ourselves up, though?" Isaac knew he had, but it was rarely because of Rocket. Often, it was in spite of them. The one thing stopping him from taking his life back was that barbed, blackened chain holding him back. "Or are we just taking a different hand?"[break][break]

Both sides of the coin were the abyss. Either you succumbed on your own, or you tied yourself to a hellbound ship.[break][break]

At Kouji's next question, Isaac simply shrugged. "I don't think those exist." It was a blunt statement, and yet Isaac said it with surprising ease. "And if someone says that's all people are good for, I think they've got their own reasons for making them want to believe it." Team Rocket certainly wanted their disposable fodder to think that was all their worth amounted to. All tools for the glory of Rocket.[break][break]

"But that doesn't change the fact that I think everyone should get a chance. They might never know what else there is to live for til they get a shot at seeing for themselves, y'know?"

[break]

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[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Kouji Matsubara

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

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Kouji

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August 29th

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i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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Kouji Matsubara

Crossroads

POSTED ON Sept 10, 2023 8:17:05 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

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”We’re dragging ourselves up, a place like this is a hole, there ain’t a hand there. It gives ya a few tools, a few people around ya, and then finally some training, as long as you do what you’re told, you can work on yourself.” The path of self-improvement was something pursued in spite of the world, not because of the world.
[break][break]
But Kouji couldn’t agree with that take, but it made sense for Isaac to think so. ”Ya think someone like Zev could be saved? Or Cillian? Those guys are veterans of so many terrible things, but more importantly, they’re close to the head of this terrible thing known as Rocket? What about me? Me living a normal life is hell, and my ideal world is what’ll save me.” He left it on that note as he looked over his shoulder, Kouji had strong opinions on this matter.
[break][break]
”But I agree with ya, most people don’t know shit about where they can go, but a number of ‘em ain’t going to go in a good direction. If you ask me, I think either path is just fine, if a dude becomes the worst trash, or the greatest saint.” He said with a shrug, he’d appreciate both, it took strength follow either path. Whether it was Walsh, or Goode, Cillian or Kyle, it was just that.
[break][break]
Rocket was the only place for a guy like him.
[break][break]
”Mah, don’t take this the wrong way, but if you ever try to leave to help others, I’ll kill you.” He said it as casually as he had said anything else in this conversation, Kouji saw it.

Isaac Merlo[break][break]

NOTES

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MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator

he/him/his

April 10

Lavaridge Town

Figuring it Out

Penitent

Renegade

I've got a, I've got a

Pocket fulla sunshine

Short King height

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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4,402 posts

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Isaac Merlo

Crossroads

POSTED ON Sept 10, 2023 18:55:12 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"]"You really think that, huh?" Isaac looked quizzically towards Kouji, as if trying to gauge how much conviction he had behind his words. "You know, I used to be the same. But trust me. The longer you spend here, the tighter you'll see that hand squeeze."[break][break]

Isaac's first months in Rocket, before he'd ended up on anyone's radar, felt like blissful anarchy. He could do what he wanted, where he wanted, how he wanted, and as long as he kept his head down he was pretty much free to write his own fate. But then he made the worst mistake he could have ever made as a free-wheeling Rocket grunt.[break][break]

He let himself become useful.[break][break]

If anything, Rocket seemed more tightly regimented than the League these days. You had your place. You paid your dues. You did your job. You fell in line. Did you work on yourself? Maybe. But only in the ways Rocket wanted. The higher up you went in the ranks, and the more useful you became, the more true all of those become. Isaac had seen it all too plainly in his talks with Cillian Quinn.[break][break]

Cil.[break][break]

Could he be saved? In many ways, Cil was the person Isaac respected and trusted most in Rocket. In many ways, he was also the one most weighed down by the chains of command. He seemed primed and poised to create a Rocket better than Kanto, but then Walsh threw his weight around and they were back to the beginning. At a time, he'd even expressed his confusion at this to Isaac.[break][break]

Zev Harcourt was the opposite. If Cil was shaped into his current form by Rocket, Zev was a natural fit. He had no respect for human life and no hesitation around bloodshed. Nevertheless, he was a master of code switching. Were he to live in a world about Rocket, would a part of him always feel incomplete? Or would it just fade into the background as he ho-hum'd through his life as an ordinary barman?[break][break]

"They made their choice," Isaac said. Frankly, the idea of "saving" them felt insulting, even if the path they were on was one that would damn them. "But think about what went into those choices. They're not just being made in a vacuum."[break][break]

The more Isaac spoke, the more he started to feel like the biggest threat to Rockets was, in fact, Rocket. Maybe he'd need some time to process that.[break][break]

"Far as I know, the most help I can be is from staying here," Isaac said. It still wasn't enough. Seeing everything that went down in Dewford made that fact clear. But what else was he supposed to do? Just walk away from it all? "Not like I'd be much use to anyone dead."

[break]

[break]

[attr="class","skullinfo"]MOBILE POST / Kouji Matsubara

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

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MrJoker

Kouji

He/Him

August 29th

Rustboro

Heterosexual

Smuggler/Violence

Grunt

Single

5'11'' height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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Kouji Matsubara

Crossroads

POSTED ON Sept 11, 2023 12:23:30 GMT

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Kouji laughed.
[break][break]
”Maaah, if that’s your choice then that’s your choice. But I think it just might be that you’re the kinda guy to get squeezed.”
[break][break]
Kouji knew when a conversation was done, they had stated their points, their ideas on the world, and on Rocket. He felt like he understood Isaac better, it was the kind of guy that Kouji could not dislike.
[break][break]
”So make sure not to die then, Isaac.” He said as he stretched one last time and sat down, they’d be here for a while longer. ”Let’s grab some drinks on the way back once we’re done, my treat.”
[break][break]
”Hope you’re not a lightweight.” He said with a smirk before he sat back down.

Isaac Merlo[break][break]