MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Jul 6, 2023 8:45:05 GMT

He's waited twenty years for this. The hours it takes him to reach Slateport riding on his Samurott's back mean nothing. They're pennies on the dollar when measured against the dream. Rain soaks him. Memories crash unbidden into his mind. Day after day of practiced perfection. Obedient, good service to the kings and queens of Circhester. Repetition, like the swinging of a sword.[break]
Raw, black rage. Rage at the creature that would threaten her existence. Rage at the hearts of men, so easily tempted by power. Rage at himself, for being caught in the trap.[break]
His disguise is in tatters by the time he reaches her apartment. Were it not for how easy she's made accessing the place for him, he would have rung at least a dozen alarm bells from the security staff. Tired, haggard, shivering as the thick cloth clings to him in the summer storm, he stumbles into her apartment.[break]
"Yumi!" He cries out as he finally lets exhaustion catch up to him. Dragging himself in like a wet dog, he doesn't even notice that it's not rain water which stains his cheekbones.

Yumi Hasegawa

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gunsmile

she / her

august 1

Goldenrod City, Johto

power

casino owner

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5'7" / 170 cm height

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice. And take pictures.

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POSTED ON Jul 6, 2023 15:54:48 GMT

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[attr="class","yumi2"]

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When Yumi woke up that morning, she knew Team Rocket had plans to mobilize at the Ancient Tomb on Route 120. She had read the emails and heard the chatter. And she'd chosen to stay home, knowing battle was not her forte.[break][break]

But Hitoshi Inoue had gone to fight, to bring glory to her name and increase their reputation in the crime syndicate. She'd given him her blessing when he departed that morning, expecting to hear back from him after evening.[break][break]

In true Hitoshi fashion, he walked right through her front door. His waterlogged clothing, frayed and torn from what she'd assumed was the fight, dripped onto the welcome mat.[break][break]

"Welcome back," Yumi said with a smile, looking up from the couch where she sat reading. Then her nose crinkled slightly at the sight of him. "We really need to get you a Pokémon that can teleport."[break][break]

As she spoke, she put down her book and rose to fetch a towel so he could dry himself off. Without servants, she had to do almost everything by herself — a fact that still irked her even though she'd gotten used to it.[break][break]

"How did it go?" she asked as she returned, towel in hand. She hadn't noticed yet the change in his demeanor.

[attr="class","ooc"]

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

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Post Goodbye Galar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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Teddie

Black Dog, the weakest beast

He/Him

November 9th

Goldenrod

Heterosexual

Assassin

Beast

5'3" and 1/2 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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POSTED ON Jul 6, 2023 16:16:47 GMT

This is a moment he has dreamed about. Her face kept him sane over years that proved maddeningly stagnant. It brings him to tears, and there is shame in the tears. It is undignified of a retainer to cry before the one he serves. Once, he wouldn't have cared. Somewhere along the way he started standing on ceremony.[break]
"I've missed the hell out of you." It doesn't answer her question, and he knows it. Taking the towel with a gentle hand, his fingers tense with apprehension. A maddening fear grips him that he is still lost in the dream. A moment of contact with her, a passing thing as he takes the towel, gives him some small assurance.[break]
"...we got pulled into the dogs' weapons. Dunno how. Not my place to understand it. All I know is I spent twenty years in there." Burning severity fills his throat and resonates in his eyes as he dries the tears. Tears will serve no purpose, not when there are monsters that would kill her on the prowl.[break]
"Yumi...this place is dangerous."

Yumi Hasegawa

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gunsmile

she / her

august 1

Goldenrod City, Johto

power

casino owner

executive

5'7" / 170 cm height

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice. And take pictures.

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POSTED ON Jul 6, 2023 16:52:00 GMT

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[attr="class","yumi2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Yumi grew still at the sight of Hitoshi's tears. She couldn't remember a time when he'd cried in front of her.[break][break]

Another person might have felt disgusted to see a weeping servant, but she understood Hitoshi better than anyone else. She knew the words he'd spoken weren't some deception or exaggeration. He was incapable of such things around her.[break][break]

Instead of scolding him, she reached out and grasped his hands with hers. Applying a firm but gentle pressure, she hoped it would comfort him.[break][break]

"I believe you," Yumi said softly.[break][break]

Even if it seemed too fantastical to wrap her head around, she had to believe Hitoshi. After all, no one else believed in her as much as he did.[break][break]

She let go of his hands. "We have to stay here," she said, her tone more firm this time. "And we knew this place was dangerous when we arrived. We agreed to become stronger, didn't we?"

[attr="class","ooc"]

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

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Post Goodbye Galar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Teddie

Black Dog, the weakest beast

He/Him

November 9th

Goldenrod

Heterosexual

Assassin

Beast

5'3" and 1/2 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

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POSTED ON Jul 6, 2023 21:04:18 GMT

"I don't know if we can get strong enough for this, Yumi." He confesses like this is the greatest sin of his life. "The things we ended up fighting, the things that trapped us in the sword n' shield for so long...they're evil. Not just greedy bastards or thugs. Evil. They're gonna kill everyone here." His grip tightens around her hands in apprehension. He wishes he knew how to hold her, reach her, keep her safe from these threats. He wishes he could shield her with his body and his soul, that she might never know such evil.[break]
"That big scrap I did back in the day, er, last month, with Grouhog, it made me realize somethin'. These people are too greedy for their own good. They all want a god to back 'em up. It'll offer someone the chance to be stronger. They'll say yes...and the whole region's gonna pay the price." He trembles in fear. He's not good at this, he knows it. Words are her weapon, not his. Neither sword nor word will slay this monster.[break]
"I don't think Rocket or the feds can kill that thing."

Yumi Hasegawa

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played by

gunsmile

she / her

august 1

Goldenrod City, Johto

power

casino owner

executive

5'7" / 170 cm height

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice. And take pictures.

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POSTED ON Jul 9, 2023 17:20:18 GMT

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[attr="class","yumi2"]

[attr="class","text"]

The man in front of her was not the Hitoshi that Yumi knew. Her Hitoshi was fearless to the point of recklessness. He believed he could protect her from anything.[break][break]

The man in her apartment looked and sounded like her Hitoshi, but the events of the day had irrevocably changed him — events she did not understand. Twenty years, he had said. Yumi's thoughts wandered to the Legendary Pokémon called Celebi. Had that creature intervened somehow?[break][break]

"We can and we will," she said at length, her voice soft, as if she were speaking with a child. "The world is full of greed and evil. We knew that in Johto, and we knew that coming here. Perhaps here, the stakes are higher, but we can't let that stop us."[break][break]

Then she pulled Hitoshi into a hug. They had hugged once before, when he'd tried to comfort her on the day her family had kicked her out. She embraced him now to pay him back for all the support he'd given her over the years.[break][break]

But despite the gesture, Yumi spoke next with the quiet, commanding presence of a woman who expected loyalty until the end. "I need you to trust me."

[attr="class","ooc"]

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

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Post Goodbye Galar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Teddie

Black Dog, the weakest beast

He/Him

November 9th

Goldenrod

Heterosexual

Assassin

Beast

5'3" and 1/2 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

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POSTED ON Jul 10, 2023 4:33:25 GMT

He didn't know how bad he needed this hug until he has it. He's fought twenty years for this hug. He holds her tight, holds her close. He is not a godly man but he thanks the gods for carrying him this far. He feels that she is the same as anyone else, as all the people he has slain for her. Flesh and blood. Organs that can be pierced. He knows it's his job to keep that fate from befalling her. She will live until she is an old, wizened matron of her own crime family. Men and women will fear her name.[break]
That's a future he can carve for her. The only thing he knows how to do is make a road of bodies for her to walk on.[break]
When they break away, he looks at her with somber eyes. Resolute. He'd die for her, but he knows that isn't what she wants. Her eyes are too beautiful for tears, and she would cry for him.[break]
"I do." He always knew she'd want to stay. This is a place teeming with humanity. Teeming with opportunity. He doesn't understand that stuff, but he knows it isn't his place to understand.[break]
"You were all that kept me goin'. Twenty years of fighting. I knew if I could just keep waking up, fightin', I'd end up back where I'm supposed to be." He places his hand over his heart, a samurai giving a vow.[break]
"I spent enough time away from you to know there's nowhere I'd rather be than right by your side."

Yumi Hasegawa

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played by

gunsmile

she / her

august 1

Goldenrod City, Johto

power

casino owner

executive

5'7" / 170 cm height

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice. And take pictures.

awards

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DOLLARS

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TAG WITH @yumi

POSTED ON Jul 10, 2023 20:47:57 GMT

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[attr="class","yumi2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Yumi felt the tension ease from Hitoshi's body as she held him. The trembling vanished. There. He was all right again, reassured by the hand of his master.[break][break]

She smiled at his vow. Deep down, she was still unsure what this whole "twenty years gone" business and what it truly entailed, but finding out could wait. For now, she could just sit with him, like old times.[break][break]

"And there's nowhere I'd want you than by my side, too," she said. "That's why, if you ever have doubts again, trust that I know the best course. I'd never lead you astray, Hitoshi."[break][break]

She pulled out her phone with one hand, gesturing toward the hallway with another. Down the corridor were hers and Mei's bedrooms, as well as the bathroom they shared.[break][break]

"I'm going to order delivery for dinner, since I bet you're starving. You should change into the spare clothes you keep in my room, since your uniform is…" She regarded the tatters with a critical gaze. "You should probably throw that out."

[attr="class","ooc"]

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

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Post Goodbye Galar

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Teddie

Black Dog, the weakest beast

He/Him

November 9th

Goldenrod

Heterosexual

Assassin

Beast

5'3" and 1/2 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

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part of

TAG WITH @hitoshi

POSTED ON Jul 12, 2023 16:33:11 GMT

She hasn't led him astray yet. His faith in her is absurd, inhuman. Its closest approximation is the undying faith of a child but that too fails to cover its depths. Hitoshi nods. If this is where she wants to be, if this crucible called Hoenn is where she must be to find happiness, then he will be here, too.[break][break]
Besides, what did he say during the SPECTRA trials?[break]
All you gotta do to kill a god is stab the heart.[break]
He stabbed a simulacrum of one of the mightiest creatures to have ever walked the earth through the heart, why not this hateful beast? At the end of the day, he has a new task. That's what this amounts up to: an assassination contract, opened by himself for his own satisfaction. The pay, as he sees it, is Yumi's life. Her continued existence in a world she understands, dominated by greedy humans.[break]
Let the dogs and the cats squabble beneath her notice.[break]
Clothes are tossed out. He changes into a track suit. It's not flattering to look at, but it feels better than a stuffy three-piece.[break]
"I want steak." The dog's smile takes on the image of a wolf. Some things never change.

Yumi Hasegawa

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played by

gunsmile

she / her

august 1

Goldenrod City, Johto

power

casino owner

executive

5'7" / 170 cm height

When someone says you can't do it, do it twice. And take pictures.

awards

731 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @yumi