languor

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 3:24:33 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


there is some measure of peace that befalls the aftermath of battle. but before that peace, there is struggle, the weakening of the knees and the strangled cry upon the realization that the adrenaline that had supported war's emissaries has all run dry. limbs fail and the elastic band of mortal limits stretched snaps back with a sense of finality. 

crunch, crunch.

and so freya is floating on her back. the water around her has turned red. her face is a garish mask of blood - clotted around her eyes and her ears. her skin is patchy, still sizzling, and yet her eyes are golden, wide open, looking up, up, up at the moon. 

crack, slurp, crunch.

and she is thinking a very selfish thing: i do not want to die.

the extent of fernando's wounds are unknown to her. his shape is just an unmoving speck on the corner of her vision; she does not waste what strength she has to turn her head. 

what dragons hadn't fallen unconscious are listless and unmoving as the curse strangles them too. rot seeps through their skin, blackening their veins. but they still breathe - 

hiss, crack, crack, slurp.

unlike the misshapen mound of silver, barely recognizable as a pokemon. and its teammate, currently being gorged upon by a draconic, alien beast. viscera hangs from micolash's pincers. a tendon curls at its lip. it cranes its neck down and suckles at the jagged puncture holes in the rabbit's belly. 

a salamence lay on its side, bearing similar marks. its body is rigid from rigor mortis, cold from the shallow waters that mark its grave.

her grave too, really.

"i don't want to die," she whispers and lyune growls piteously. muscles tense under her, but his strength has left him. 

slurp, crunch cr - 

micolash turns with a start and then flees abruptly. freya knows this only because it flies up, into her field of vision, silhouetted by the moon and then eclipsed by the rocky outcropping's edge, free. does it know it has abandoned her to death? does it have the capacity to care? it had protected her at the climax when she'd needed it most - why run now?

her lashes flutter. she sighs and forgets all of her questions, save for one.

here we stand, feet planted in the earth, but might the cosmos be very near us, only just above our heads?
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
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
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 3:54:48 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]In a rare moment of making their intentions known, Suicune was quite cross with Isaac. He'd damn near reenacted his death facing off against , right down to disrespecting his Aegislash's sacrifice by trying to go back and save its life. Their intervention allowed for everyone to make it out alive. Had they not been around? Things could have gotten far too ugly.[break][break]

It was a mistake Isaac needed to make. He had powers, but they had limits. He had an iron will and quick wits, but these, too, had limits. He had a warm and tender heart, and perhaps this had the greatest limits of them all. Even if he worked within and around all of these limits, even if he embodied the greatness Suicune knew he could, there was still the possibility that all of Isaac's efforts could come up short. Not even legends, and those they put their faith in, were infallible.[break][break]

This was the lesson Isaac learned as he saw all of the broken bodies, abandoned and left to rot far from the shore.[break][break]

So this had been why Suicune had sent him here. Was it punishment? Was it a chance at redemption? Or was it simply an issue bigger than their little spat? Perhaps there were shades of all three. As Isaac rushed towards the waters, the waves smoothing out beneath his feet to let him pass, a small spark of pride flashed in the legend's eyes.[break][break]

They wouldn't linger this time. Isaac would learn from his mistakes or perish at the hands of his own folly.[break][break]

Neither would the Pokemon of the fallen. Many that remained were, as Isaac unfortunately discovered with his own two hands, long gone. Rigor mortis. Bloat. The kinds of horrific wounding you only saw in war movies and car crash PSAs. Something horrid had taken place here, and most, if not all, who had bore witness to it were beyond saving.[break][break]

The two humans were a different story. @fernando, Hoenn councilman, Silph mogul, and one of the most important people in the region. In his past, Isaac said he wouldn't so much as piss on a Silph if one was on fire. Time away from Rocket's sway, and seeing the horrid condition the man was in, made that old bluster feel unthinkable.[break][break]

The other was a much easier decision; Freya, the one who had put so much hope, faith, and trust in him. Together they stood. Together they fell. Together, by Isaac's will, they would be saved. Isaac brought Freya and Fernando side by side, mist swirling around the fingers on each hand as he tried to work up enough energy to heal them both.[break][break]

"Sorry, Frey. I know I said I'd warn you next time, but . . ." With a sigh, Isaac dragged an orb of healing waters along each of their foreheads. The black veins grew deepest and darkest where his water touched, inky black tendrils piercing into the healing waters. However, as this contact passed, so too did the tar in their veins. It was as if Isaac's healing waters was drawing the infection away.[break][break]

How long would it take? How much energy? How much focus? Isaac cared not. He simply worked until he fell to his knees, mists rolling from his body and into the surrounding waters. What started as his own handmade endeavors quickly became a collaboration with the ocean itself, the sanctified waters rising up from all angles to purge Freya, Fernando, and what few of their Pokemon remained of their curse.[break][break]

Isaac's eyes glowed brightly. His shoulders trembled from the exertion. His breathing grew shallow and fragile. Yet for now, he and the ocean were one.

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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2,667 posts
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freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 4:12:23 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


only one person has ever called her frey. and maybe that is why she gives up the fight so quickly. maybe that is why she hands the safety of her self to this voice, new and familiar all the same, the lines between the two so blurred and so forgotten and all the same not enough, not the familiar she wants, craves, needs more than anything in the world right now. 

king, she thinks as fire whistles through her veins. inside, she is breaking and it hurts so very terribly, but her muscles cannot respond to the pain. she can do nothing but drift in this perpetual torture. 

until it's over and the voice in her head is the rough croaking sound coming from her own lips, warbling one syllable again and again with religious fervor.

and then hitching as she startles, pale gold taking in isaac's drawn face and after a beat, understanding, and after that, truly understanding - 

i get to live.

her lips curl in an aggrieved snarl, fighting back tears her body still doesn't have the strength to shed. to her right is a warmth that makes her turn and she slips into a worried grimace, hand stuttering against fernando's wrist. 

the patchy scales of his curse are no longer an angry, spreading red. his pulse is low. he shifts, groans, but he does not resurface. she collapses back against lyune's side and looks at isaac through pained, hooded eyes.

it takes a couple of tries to form words. each consonant is a shock of pain to her larynx. 

"thank you."
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
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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4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
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Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 4:34:25 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]Isaac would love to say he protectively sat by Freya's side, dramatically framed by the sun as he tended to her remaining wounds. In a perfect world, he'd be able to handle her pain with the grace and dignity befitting an Avatar. Maybe, in an unexpected turn of events, he'd be the hero he insisted he could never be.[break][break]

Instead, with a mumbling "Don't worry about it," Isaac faceplanted right into the murky waters and pebbly sands.[break][break]

Oh dear. How much of Isaac's energy (and dignity) did that little maneuver take? Considering their corner of the ocean was still reshaped into a shimmering healing spring, it must have taken a lot. Isaac at least had enough energy to flip over onto his back, preventing him from the world's most ironic death by drowning.[break][break]

For a while, he was content to just lie there. He was tired. Freya was tired. Fernando wasn't even awake. The fading embers of war raged on in the distance, and yet here the three of them lied, a narrow sandbar and a universe apart from all of those worries. Isaac was almost afraid he'd end up drifting off to sleep.[break][break]

Instead, he turned ever so slightly to face Freya. "S'it okay if I ask what happened?"

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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2,667 posts
part of
TAG WITH @freya
freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 4:50:24 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


whatever he says probably sounds normal to his own ears, but his mumbled nothings are just that, and then he collapses before her eyes. she blinks hard and wills herself to sit up, but her body denies her, insisting rest, survive, live, sleep, please, please, please

water splashes. through her struggling wakefulness, she can at least calm down when he flops over like a struggling fish. lyune even slowly extends his hind leg to help keep isaac's head out of the water. it's the least he can do, for saving his mistress.

the two of them drift in and out. the water should have given her shivers to the bone, but the fire in lyune's belly, as weak as it may be after such a hard, impossible battle, still burns warmly enough to keep the cold at bay. 

but she cannot rest completely. pain has her consciousness bobbing to the surface. when isaac finds his voice, she runs her tongue along her chapped lips.

"wo-chien 'n tapu fini. it - ergh - betrayed him." she tries to nod towards fernando and grimaces, the muscles in her stomach tightening, hand straying to the shale still embedded in her hip, slick with dark red blood. the tepid waters of this newly blessed spring caress her with life energy and with it, comes pain.

"i meant to kill her," she admits to him breathlessly. "i didn't expect...gods, i thought i was going to die. he turned on me. protected her." she exhales. "did you cleanse him of his curse?"
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played by

spiral

silph
SIR
twenty-nine
august 12th
saffron
oppressive
silph co. ceo
council member
POWER IS TAKEN, NEVER GIVEN—SO TAKE WHAT YOU ARE OWED
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FERNANDO SILPH
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 9:59:47 GMT
FERNANDO SILPH Avatar

LANGUOR


CAMEO



ISAAC DRAWS OUT NOT ONLY HIS CURSE BUT ALSO HIS CONSCIOUSNESS. what life that still lingers peers through hazy, half lidded eyes. they trace along vague silhouettes, barely able to keep open, as the figures start to saturate into murky colors.

he sees white hair and, in the moment, that is enough. he’s not coherent enough to make the distinction. so he grasps onto what little hope he has left.

are you safe,” he mumbles between heavy coughs, desperately reaching out for freya, before his body give out under the weight of his own mortality.


[attr="class","spiralpee"]

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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
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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4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
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Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 14:53:49 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]Wo-Chien and Tapu Fini.[break][break]

.[break][break]

Was the strength of her grudge such that even gods bent the knee to it?[break][break]

If Fernando had been chosen before, he sure didn't seem to be anymore. Broken, battered, barely able to muster up the strength to check on her before drifting back into unconsciousness. Just in case, the waters surrounded Fernando, a shimmering veil against the creeping specter of his own mortality.[break][break]

"She is. And so are you." His voice was small, his own energy reserves nearly bottomed out. Nonetheless, he drew as much strength as he could from it. "I'm not gonna let that change."[break][break]

It would be easier said than done. Even as the toxin ebbed away, the inky darkness purged and overwhelmed by the shimmering waters it bled into, the two were still in rough shape. Freya, especially, was only being held together by the sharpened stone that caused her agony. Isaac was far more of a curate than a miracle worker. He dared not touch it.[break][break]

"I wish I knew." What was a curse? Was it the poison being conquered by his waters? Was it the scars left upon his mind? Or was it something past either of those levels, a threat to their very souls? The extent of his abilities, of any Avatar's reach, was still so unknown to him. "The water's doing . . . something, at least. I'm hoping it's enough."[break][break]

"How're you feeling?"

[attr="class","oocbox"]
TAG + @fernando [break]
NOTES — notes go here




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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2,667 posts
part of
TAG WITH @freya
freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 15:28:34 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


he comes to in a moment of clarity, reaching towards her, and her heart skips a beat. the steelix with its light of ruin, the wigglytuff packed with contingencies curated for her, are both forgotten in the wake of relief as she reaches too. his hand slips under the surface of the water, but emerges seconds later, fingers grasped by freya's own. 

she holds him, blinking hard, and does not let go as isaac soothes his unconscious form. different measures of pain are like lightning over her body and the fight for consciousness dies down as her cursed body is restored, bit by bit.

at the question, she chuckles a dry, wheezing laugh that cuts off into an abrupt hiss, fingers flexing against slippery shale. 

"like i just fought off two malevolent gods intent on killing me." she swallows through the copper tang in her mouth, throat still raw. "but i did it, isaac. i saved him. even when he tried to kill me, i saved him."

her words tremble, voice breaking at the end of a question he has no answer to - "will i be forgiven?"
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
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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4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
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Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 15:43:14 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]"You did." At what cost? Her own life hanging on by a thread? Many of her Pokemon subjected to horrific, painful fates? @elsiabeth, someone he both loved and feared, now having control of two legends? Freya may have won the battle, but fear gripped Isaac by the throat as he wondered how she'd take losing the war.[break][break]

Yet for now, none of that meant a damn thing. What mattered was that Freya was alive, and that against all odds this war hadn't broken her yet. Isaac let his fears remain a secret between him and the setting sun. "I'm proud of you."[break][break]

He wasn't the only one haunted. Freya's last question wasn't meant for him, and yet he would be the only one in the world to hear it. Time and time again, Isaac was left stepping up to a world he had no business being a part of. Was this his purpose? Or was it more defiance in the face of the nothing he was meant for?[break][break]

"Why would you need that?"

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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2,667 posts
part of
TAG WITH @freya
freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 15:58:58 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


she does not yet know what the future holds. but tapu fini is gone, fled with elisabeth, fernando's last gift during the tumultuous storm. she can only imagine with the legendary gone, its influence over him slips through its grasp. doubt tugs at the back of her mind, but gods, she is too tired to sink into anxieties.

a mantra replaces it - i saved him, i saved him, i saved him - and her internal dialogue is broken by four little, world-ending words.

her tears are laden with veins of black and the sob that rips from her chest makes every aching nook and cranny in her body light up like flares. but nothing could ever hurt more than what she's been carrying these long, arduous months.

she never did mourn her parents' passing.

"because i have failed...so many...people, isaac."
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!
awards
4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
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TAG WITH @isaacmerlo
Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 16:28:08 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]There were many responses Freya may have expected to that confession. A quick, almost surprised laugh surely wouldn't be one of them. "That's it?" Isaac asked, as if to confirm the sound he'd just made. He flipped over once more, now from his back to his side, so he could look Freya in the eyes. "Man, Frey. If you knew how many people I've failed."[break][break]

, , , , , , for not being there for them how he'd promised. and , for not protecting them before the worst came to haunt them. and , who paid the price for his deception. and , for not being the family they deserved. and even Freya herself, for trying to reach them with his power and in turn only hurting them more.[break][break]

Buffaloman. Pandora. Sanford. Hearth. Echo.[break][break]

Kiryu.[break][break]

His path had been littered with failure, and yet he still moved forward. Surrender, the only alternative, was unacceptable. "You've also tried for those people. That's more than this world usually gives them." In a war-torn region, even failed kindness was a treasure worth protecting. "I'd rather someone try and fail than not even give a shit about me. So don't go giving up on me, y'hear?"[break][break]

" 'Sides." A slight, cheeky grin spread across his face. "You're on the Council. Everyone's gonna blame you either way."

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
awards
2,667 posts
part of
TAG WITH @freya
freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 17:21:24 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


through painful, jerking tears, she finds it within herself to smile. and it is a harrowing one, aglow with the haunting truth that the person she wants to forgive her most in the world is herself. but i can't tries to worm its way through her esophagus; there is too much blood in the way and besides, the pitiful whisper would be lost in the rain of isaac's consolation.

her cries stutter into wheezing laughs, lungs ballooning against bruised ribs. a weight is shoved off her shoulders, killed quite honestly with kindness, and it sinks into the cleansing waters, dissipating in the push and pull of an artificial tide.

"i can withstand blame," she says roughly. she shifts to look at him. brown hair, slick with water, spattered with mud, droops down over his brows. what a sorry sight they all are.

"at least, when i trust i did the right thing. but all of this is so big." she coughs wetly. "and life is too short and love is too long and now i think i'd give up on all the rest of the world for a man i've already hurt too many times."

she works one hand out of her gauntlet and drifts her clammy fingers over the water. the other stubbornly holds onto fernando's hand. 

confliction rises in pale gold, for only a moment, and the hesitating words dies before they're sprung. she's okay, by the way, she wants to say. cygne. but she's not cygne anymore and it would be cruel of her, to kill the woman in front of him now.

instead, she gives him a wry smile. "dragons are very loyal creatures, by the way. save their life and they'll stand by you for the rest of their days."

fernando is a testament to that.
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!
awards
4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
part of
TAG WITH @isaacmerlo
Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 17:42:29 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]The two looked like absolute messes and felt like it too. Nevertheless, they found a reason to press on, laughing their assess off in a pool of blood, mud, and iron. They probably looked as crazy as they sounded, but fuck it. Life moved on, and against all odds they were alive. Maybe, in this briefest moment, they thrived.[break][break]

"Yeah. Me too," Isaac admitted, their earlier chat still fresh on his mind. "This is gonna sound stupid and crazy, but. I don't want to be forgiven. I don't think I should be. Least, I don't think anyone has to owe me it. I'd rather make this second chance count and fix things than get sent away with some pat on the head."[break][break]

He wasn't stupid. He knew what he'd done paled in comparison to countless other Rockets. But what use was it comparing wrongs? People were hurt either way.[break][break]

Freya's words were familiar. They were like knives right to his heart, reminders of the person he'd both loved most and failed hardest. For a moment, Isaac averted his eyes, taking a few quick breaths to compose himself. How else was he supposed to respond when he'd faced Freya's choice and picked the world?[break][break]

"It's bigger than any of us," Isaac agreed. "Bigger than anyone should have to face alone. I can't blame you for wanting to walk away from it all." It was funny. Isaac didn't take up others' burdens because he wanted to. He did it out of spite, because how dare so many brilliant, promising be people get crushed under the world's weight?[break][break]

He could never be normal. Not while he faced life, the universe, and everything, fighting them in a steel cage built of his own spite.[break][break]

Freya, with those musings set aside, proved to be much the same. They fought, they bled, they sacrificed, because none of this was fair and they couldn't let it pass unpunished. Would the people they love understand? Could it truly be love if they couldn't?[break][break]

Isaac had surrendered his, because she deserved so much better to be shackled to his gravity. With how Suicune flipped his life upside down, and AQUA awaited on the horizon, it seemed more and more like the right choice. She didn't deserve to pay the price of his obligations. She deserved a comfortable life, unburdened by all but her own brilliance.[break][break]

He hoped Freya could find that mythical golden ending, the greatest of all Isaac's failures.[break][break]

"Do they, now?" Isaac asked, a wry smile on his face. "And if the best way a dragon could stand by me was to take care of herself?"

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
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played by

crow

dragoness
she/her
twenty-seven
November 03
sootopolis
demisexual
councilwoman
ace
i got new love, new skin to wrap myself in
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2,667 posts
part of
TAG WITH @freya
freya morningstar
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 18:03:55 GMT
freya morningstar Avatar


"forgiveness isn't owed anyway," she says. "it's earned." and it's not chased. which is why the pinpricks of resentment still linger at the base of her skull, thorns poking and prodding the irrational parts of herself that tell her no matter what she does, her pre-ordained fate, conducted by no one but herself, invalidates every supposedly good action she may ever take.

silence lapses. she can hold her lids open for longer than a few seconds at a time now and she is privy to the rolling waves of emotion on isaac's face. she does not know him well enough to pick them apart, to measure the crinkling of his eyes and the turning of his lips. 

she snorts and that hurts too. fresh blood flows over the crusted brown under her nostrils. she grimaces and swipes at it, surprised her arm answers her brain so quickly. 

"he said the same thing a while ago." he and alex and king, all in their own ways. ana too. "i think, in a way, it'll be easier to do that now. when you're not exhausted to the bone, we can try your aurora again. whatever it was you were trying to do to help."

a veiled, hopeful yes, i will
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played by

Wanderer

The Liberator
he/him/his
23
April 10
Lavaridge Town
Figuring it Out
Penitent
Renegade
Turned on my friends and brought them pain. I have no right to show I can change. But I gotta try!
awards
4,329 posts
Isaac Merlo DOLLARS
part of
TAG WITH @isaacmerlo
Isaac Merlo
languor
POSTED ON Nov 13, 2023 18:24:36 GMT
Isaac Merlo Avatar
[nospaces]
[attr="class","isaac2"]

[attr="class","topimage"]


[attr="class","textbox"]"It's gifted, if you ask me." You could strive and strive and strive some more, but from some people forgiveness would never come. Others gave it away freely, too freely, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. "What we earn is the chance to make things right. What happens next is all up to them."[break][break]

If Hoenn itself, the spirit of its land and people, could pass judgment upon them, what would it say?[break][break]

At Freya's offer, Isaac pushed himself out from the mud. "Bone tired? Oh, please." That little, cocky grin was back on his face, a mask set over the bags under his eyes and the raspiness of his breath. "Gonna take a lot more than a miracle or two to knock me on my ass."[break][break]

It helped that he wasn't the one that'd be exerting himself. A Pokeball hit the sand, a Yanmega emerging from within. It hovered in the air above Issac, droning as it awaited orders. "Griff, think you could make a platform with your string shot? We gotta get off this rock before someone finds us."[break][break]

In a series of aerial loops, Griffin took a piece of flotsam and wrapped it in a massive ball of webbing. Her furious wingbeats oushed it down and spread it out, pushing it into the shape of a large mattress with raised ends. It was no luxury liner, but it'd do.[break][break]

"C'mon," Isaac said, offering Freya a hand. "Let's get you two to a hospital."

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




[newclass=".isaac2"] --color:#c4c067; [/newclass]
[newclass=".isaac2"] margin: 0px auto; background-color: #111; min-height: 500px; width: 450px; margin: 0px auto; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom:20px; } .isaac2 .textbox a, .isaac2 .textbox i { color:var(--color); } .isaac2 .textbox b { font:bold 13px/10px 'Poppins'; color:var(--color); } .topimage { background-image: url(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1058305315642286080/1155427871351906335/image.png); height: 250px; width: 400px; background-size: cover; background-position:50% 20%; margin: 0px auto; } .isaac2 .textbox { line-height: 15px; letter-spacing: .5px; font-size: 12px; font-family: roboto; color: #d6d6d6; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align: justify; padding-bottom: 20px; background:#1E1E1E; padding:30px 50px; background-image: url(https://image.ibb.co/cpf8Wc/flower_patt.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: bottom; } .isaac2 .oocbox { border-top: 3px solid #333; padding-top: 10px; width: 260px; margin: 20px auto 0px; text-align:left; [/newclass]