SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

Unattached

Black Widow

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

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

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4,757 posts

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Elisabeth Fiorelli

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 4, 2023 3:40:18 GMT

Lulu Flint likes this

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[attr="class","minimal elisa"]

[attr="class","top"]

All at once, the crystal clear waters plunged into darkness. What had once been a pool of liquid sunlight became reflective of a starless night sky, pitiless in its watery gleam.[break][break]

A veil of shadow fell over her face, cutting her silhouette in two halves. Although she stood perfectly still, a silent tension held her in place, visible restraint holding her back from unleashing that energy in all its monstrous force.[break][break]

"You," she began, her voice the tender caress of a knife pressed flush against the skin, "are such a child."[break][break]

Flashes of lightning briefly revealed the blonde bodies drowning at the bottom of the water. The amount was impossible to glean at this distance, each corpse carelessly tossed over the other. Some of those drowning women were caught in the throes of their own death, hands clutching their throat as they begged for air that would never enter their lungs -- for a mercy the world would not afford them.[break][break]

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE SACRIFICED OURSELVES?" she shouted now, and this time she was the wind, and the water, and all of the raging storm itself embodied. "HOW MANY TIMES DID WE KILL THE PARTS OF OURSELVES THAT MADE LIFE WORTH LIVING, BECAUSE OUR SURVIVAL DEMANDED IT?"[break][break]

The Tablets of Ruin blazed on Wo-chien's back, fueled all the more by the prodding of this festering, gaping wound. The name that burned upon its back was familiar.[break][break]

It was her own.[break][break]

"HOW MANY UNIVERSES DO WE LET OTHERS KILL US FOR OUR KINDNESS?" she demanded of him and the god that judged her by his side. "YOU KNOW NOTHING OF WHAT IT IS TO CHOOSE WHO YOU ARE."[break][break]

Sargassum piled up beneath their feet, yanked out from the waters as resentment washed over her with unfathomable power. It ensnared itself around the man that dared to face her with such cruel judgment, constricting around him like a Seviper's coils.[break][break]

There was no mistaking her suffocating intent.[break][break]

She meant to kill him.

[attr="class","ooc"] Isaac Merlo[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission (x8).[break]
- 10 MP for incorporating INTERDREAM MIST or spawning PARADOX POKEMON.[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

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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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TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

Isaac Merlo

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 4, 2023 5:12:20 GMT

Lulu Flint and Elisabeth Fiorelli like this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","textbox"]He stood here, a legend's scion, and she dared call him a child.[break][break]

"You think you know us?" Isaac's voice, calm and even for so long, took on a dangerous tone. The surface, still masquerading as his own, stretched itself thin to contain the storm brewing beneath.[break][break]

"Where we're from?" A father, larger than life, who resented his very existence. A barren room, devoid of even a shred of support or interest. A little sibling who was the sun and stars while he was little more than ash. It wasn't just Elisas in the water now. The Isaacs who never escaped that room joined them.[break][break]

"What we've endured?" The long, winding road. Hoenn's routes, suitable for travel yet far insufficient for long term life. Being chased out of campsites he'd snuck into and cities he'd run hustles in. Living off of whatever pocket change his odd jobs provided, the garbage could scrounge up, and his five finger discount could provide. Those who couldn't handle that life joined the rest.[break][break]

"What we've lost?" Being eroded away, piece by piece, by Maldacena's sick experiments. Having his eye torn into by Ashley Shepard, his wayward brother. His beloved Aggron dying because he let himself be conscripted into a war he didn't believe in. Having to end a man's life at gunpoint because he let that disbelief show. At each turn, another Isaac who didn't make it.[break][break]

"What we've sacrificed?" The clouds above mirrored the waters below; an inky black abyss. From them descended Shadow Lugia, her eyes a hateful red. With each beat of her wings, the water began to churn. It didn't simply kick up waves. That would be too easy. Instead, the water rose into a spiraling pillar, the nexus from which its Shadow Storm would take form.[break][break]

Countless Isaac's stood against the storm. They were the first to be torn to bloody shreds.[break][break]

"WHO IS THE CHILD?" Lugia's was not the only storm to break. Isaac's voice, no longer his own, boomed out with the force of the north wind. "THE ONE WHO DARES FACE THIS CRUEL, UNFORGIVING REALITY? OR THE ONE WHO HIDES FROM IT IN A GARDEN OF HER OWN ROT?"[break][break]

As the voice tore out from him, so, too, did his will to fight. Isaac lurched as if seasick, blinking rapidly. The glow to his eyes and the tension to his stance were gone. His face was a mask of shock, and in that moment he turned to Elisabeth. An apology rushed to his lips.[break][break]

Too late. Her sargassum reached him first, compressing his body with enough force to bend steel.[break][break]

Isaac coughed and sputtered as first his gut, then his chest, and finally his neck were snagged by Elisabeth's death grip. He tried to claw at his restraints, but his wrists were snared and pulled apart before he had the chance. His body hung limp, her pull so strong that he was left dangling above the sea.[break][break]

"You don't know me," he restated. His voice was his once more, and his tone softened to match. "And I don't know you, or your pain."[break][break]

"But I want to."[break][break]

The pillar of water grew larger and larger, swirled faster and faster. The Isaacs and Elisas below, stuck in various states of arrested development and imminent death, were but mere speed bumps in its way. One by one, they, too, were consumed by the Shadow Storm. Yet before the last Elisa could be fed into the grinder, Isaac reached towards her with what little strength he had left.[break][break]

The waters rejected her, pushing her away from the storm and towards Isaac. As he looked upon her, his own consciousness rapidly fading, he could only lament that Elisa's life had turned out this way. She didn't deserve such enmity, least of all from herself. What he wouldn't give for her to have a second chance.[break][break]

"I choose to fight." His voice was little more than a weak rasp. Darkness gnawed at the corners of his vision. His eyelids began to flutter shut. Nevertheless, he was smiling. "Not just for me. For you, too. Because you're worth fighting for."[break][break]

As the sargassum threatened to swallow him whole, what had once been a corpse began to stir.

[attr="class","oocbox"]
TAG — Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]
NOTES — notes go here

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

Unattached

Black Widow

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

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

awards

4,757 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @elisabeth

Elisabeth Fiorelli

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 7, 2023 3:53:20 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","minimal elisa"]

[attr="class","top"]

The unfolding saga of his suffering didn't inspire empathy in her, nor did it stir her heartstrings to pity. The faintest hint of his own resentments whispered in this revelation, and though he claimed himself above it, the way he succumbed to her own grudge-fueled power spoke the truth that she believed:[break][break]

"Everyone suffers. Even you."
[break]
"There is no reason to believe in the inherent goodness of a cruel, unfeeling world."
[break]

He thought she hid in her rot from the truth of the world? She laughed with a manic shriek at the audacity of the ludicrous suggestion, pushed further and further past the realm of sanity into the fury of madness.[break][break]

Hadn't the opposite always been true?[break][break]

Hadn't she hidden in the beauty of her gardens from the rot inside of herself? Hadn't she pretended the world hadn't inflicted this reeking, infected wound in her heart, closing her eyes and pretending she remained blind to the ways she kept bleeding, and bleeding, and bleeding?[break][break]

"I'm tired of pretending the world is something it isn't," she decided, and this time, the power dwindled from her to reveal her own mortality. Replacing that commanding otherworldly tenor was a calm, controlled malice that was all her own, made all the more frightening for its familiarity. "And I'm tired of entertaining you."[break][break]

The sargassum wound tighter and tighter about the young Avatar's throat, Isaac Merlo's asphyxiation seeming imminent.[break][break]

Until a blonde woman threw herself forward, desperate sobs wracking her body as she reached for him in futile protest. Large green eyes looked up at the Scorned, glittering with tears, as a soft and familiar voice beseeched mercy from a black-haired woman who had never received it in her own time of need.[break][break]

Emotion-based power relied on instinct, not self-aware calculation.[break][break]

When the sargassum changed targets, it did so the moment Elisabeth registered the appearance of this hateful creature who had tormented her across so many lifetimes.[break][break]

The seaweed released Isaac Merlo, lashing out to kill this mocking doppelganger that Elisabeth Fiorelli was destined to never become.

[attr="class","ooc"] Isaac Merlo[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission (x9).[break]
- 10 MP for incorporating INTERDREAM MIST or spawning PARADOX POKEMON.[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.

[attr="class","milkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

close tab

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!

awards

4,402 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

Isaac Merlo

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 7, 2023 4:49:55 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","textbox"]At those last, poisoned words, Isaac couldn't help but laugh. His throat crinkled like dying leaves, yet his voice was as clear as a crystal stream. "Come on, Lis. You really think we'd be here if this world was just good?" Even with his eyes drawing closed, his lids would bore into Elisabeth's eyes. "Fuck no. The world sucks, man."[break][break]

"But why make it suck more when I can fight to make things better?"[break][break]

That less thought came out less like words and more like some strained yawn. It barely escaped his throat before the sargassum sealed it shut, no more words pouring out or air coming in. For all his talk, for all his promise, it seemed in the end he was still mortal. Maybe he and Lis had that in common.[break][break]

Now she would have to contend with that mortality firsthand.[break][break]

The seaweed threw Isaac to the ground, for it was no longer the true object of her ire. That was a luxury resolved entirely for herself. It now shot towards her doppelganger, hellbent on throttling her without a shred of mercy or remorse. Isaac, coughing up a lung on his hands and knees, would've been in no position to intervene. However, that wouldn't stop him from trying.[break][break]

With a clench of his fist, the seas tightened around their wayward children. The seaweed would be stopped just short of the other Lis, lashing mere inches away from her like a cat of nine tails. It wasn't a pretty rescue, but Isaac had bought her just as much time as she had bought him. Such was the cycle of generosity; one's kindness relieving another's burdens, only to have their own burden eased by them in turn.[break][break]

"She's been through enough. You said it yourself. Suffered at the hands of a cruel, unfeeling world. Just like we all have." Isaac pulled a hand back, and with it the seas began to wrench back against the sargassum. Their duel had devolved into a tug of war between divinities, might against might, spirit against spirit. "So why do you want to hurt yourself even more?"

[attr="class","oocbox"]
TAG — Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]
NOTES — notes go here

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played by

Scarlet

Lisa Bortiforte

She/Her

August 30

Camphrier Town, Kalos

Bi/Heteroromantic

Bioterrorist

Underboss

Unattached

Black Widow

5'9" / 175.26 cm height

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

awards

4,757 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @elisabeth

Elisabeth Fiorelli

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 9, 2023 0:31:05 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","minimal elisa"]

[attr="class","top"]

Push and pull, ebb and flow, yin and yang.[break][break]

He wanted to force the darkness into the light, not realizing the two of them existed in opposition to one another.[break][break]

Salvation and Ruination. They completed the same cycle.[break][break]

The rising tide fought against the heap of pale sargassum, until abruptly, Elisabeth's hold on it slackened. The waves would lurch forward with the sudden inertia, flooding the premises of the watery grave anew.[break][break]

Should it throw Isaac Merlo's newly revived charge into a whirlpool, well. That wasn't Elisabeth Fiorelli's concern.[break][break]

"You waste my time," the underboss hissed, the Interdream mist thickening around her like an impenetrable fog. "Both of you."[break][break]

Whether she meant him, his patron, or the doppelganger he'd rescued, she left open to his interpretation. She held no desire to convince him of truths she knew to be self-evident.[break][break]

"He is not our true prey here. He is a diversion from achieving greater ends."
[break]

Both of her patrons urged her onwards, abandoning this newfound rival to the cause he'd chosen to champion.[break][break]

It wasn't a question of wanting to harm herself, not in the sense he might have believed. [break][break]

Some cycles wouldn't break, no matter how hard the universe tried to intervene.

[attr="class","ooc"] Isaac Merlo[break][break]

SPOILER: Click to show

- 10 MP per IC post in a RT Battle/Mission (x10).[break]
- 10 MP for incorporating INTERDREAM MIST or spawning PARADOX POKEMON.[break]
- 25 MP use a legendary/mythical pokemon in your thread.[break]
- 50 MP for participation in a RT Battle/Mission.[break]
- 100 MP for Completing Smog (1/2).[break]
- 300 MP for "losing" a RT Battle/Mission.[break]
TOTAL: 585 MP

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close tab

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!

awards

4,402 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @isaacmerlo

Isaac Merlo

SMOG - Isaac vs Elisabeth

POSTED ON Oct 9, 2023 0:50:24 GMT

Elisabeth Fiorelli likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","textbox"]"Do we?"[break][break]

Isaac caught his charge by the hand, refusing to let her be cast away so ignobly. If the dreamscape was to unravel her, then may it be with Elisabeth seeing her all the while. She couldn't ignore the reality of who she was, who she is, as if it had never been the case.[break][break]

After all, it was true that there were cycles to all things. Ebbs and flows. Pushes and pulls. Yin and yang. Ruination and liberation. But those cycles did not discriminate. There was no world where Isaac was the radiant light to Elisabeth's suffocating darkness, because even after their patron's blessings they were not some perfect, dogmatic beings. Isaac had succumbed to his fair share of ruination. Who was to say a part of Lis didn't yearn for liberation?[break][break]

Yet Isaac couldn't just force someone to "be" better. To do so violated every part of the creed he'd set for himself. He came not to lock Lis in chains of his own preference, but to hold a mirror up to her. What she saw, and what she wished to do with this knowledge, was all up to her.[break][break]

"I meant what I said, you know." As the two turned to part, his voice would drift between them along a gentle breeze. "If you want to see what I've done for yourself, find me in the Petalburg Woods." A final invitation, a hand outstretched with no dagger hidden up his sleeve. This, too, she could do with what she wished.[break][break]

Some cycles wouldn't break, no matter how heaven and earth, gods and men, heroes and villains sought to make their mark upon it. Perhaps it would only be a matter of time before Elisabeth made her heart known again.[break][break]

As the dream world dispersed into pink smoke, he threw a casual wave over his shoulder. He knew, one way or another, he'd see her again.

[attr="class","oocbox"]
TAG — Elisabeth Fiorelli [break]
NOTES — notes go here