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The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 4:45:52 GMT

jayden cross likes this

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[attr="class","gunstest6"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

"Mmm?" Howard raised his spoon to his mouth and chewed slowly for a moment. "I've read a few of the reports. It was after my time, but Calyrex appearing in Sootopolis made me go and pull them up. They were engaging reads. I was up for hours!" [break][break]

Hours versus twenty years. It was remarkable how much time could be contained within a piece of text. Years could be boiled down to a few sentences if necessary. [break][break]

The fire crackled as Howard pondered Navy's question. The sheriff had been a huge help in making camp, but Howard was remarkably skilled in the endeavor. Years of wandering the world's mountains, deserts, and crevices had given Howard remarkable camping skills. Years of exploring the Desert Resort made him excel in the outdoors. [break][break]

"The shield, probably. You know by now that I'm not fit to swing a sword." Howard sighed and thought of jayden cross. His fellow admin was remarkably skilled on the battlefield, and his swordplay was the stuff of legends. Howard had enjoyed a brief training regime, but it hadn't stuck well. "Gotta make sure artifacts and memories are remembered, right? A sword is designed to kill. That is its sole purpose. Until it's bent into a plow, it cannot do more than take a life." [break][break]

He looked towards Zaria with a raised eyebrow. Zaria's weapon was their lifeline. Without it, the two were dead and buried. [break][break]

"But it does have a flat end, I suppose."[break][break]

After his concession to the knight's skill, he was silent for a spell. He looked at Navy for a long time, his expression was wracked with confusion. Annoyance and confusion and fear flickered across her face. Why were they eating together, as if nothing happened?[break][break]

"You must despise me for what I did in the Deep Sea. You could've thrashed me and left me in the Weald, and I couldn't have blamed you for it. Why?"

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

[attr="class","gunstest6pkmn"]

[attr="class","gunstest6credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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Navy

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October 13th

Slateport

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E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

5'10" / 177.8 cm height

In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 5:27:11 GMT

Tempest Quinn likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Navypog3"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-big-img"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-post"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-icon"]

“Cause you’re my friend.” It’s simple logic, almost childlike. If there’s one thing that the heroic rider had in common with a wolf or a dog, it was their base, common, loyalty. Navy looked at the fire, wondering how much time had passed in the waking world. Milliseconds? Seconds? Minutes? Was Regice, at that very moment, rampaging through Dewford while their bodies lay frozen within Eternatus’s bowels.[break][break]
“That doesn’t mean there won’t be a reckoning for what you’ve done.” He clarifies, feeling the need to state that as a lawman. “But beating you up just ‘cause I’m mad you wronged me? No, I’m past all that.”[break][break]
He leaned back, and looked up at the nebula above them. It managed to color the night sky beautifully. After a lifetime under a Slateport sky, he found himself appreciating Eternatus’s mist, if not its cause.[break][break]
“When Winter showed up at my house, I saw where that road goes. I’d make a damn good Rocket Beast. Probably the best of them.” An arrogant statement, he knows, and one his heart longs to put to the test against Zev Harcourt or Tempest Quinn. “But I want to be better than that, Howard. There’ll come a day where I bring you in for what you did, but it’ll be because it’s the right thing to do, and not because I hate you.” His eyes meet Howard’s.[break][break]
“And it’ll be after I beat you fair and square, your Pokemon against mine. The League has to be better than Rocket, or we lose the war.”[break][break]
It was at that moment, as the food finished and the mingled aromaa of beef and carrots filled the air, that Zaria chose to interject.[break][break]
“Rocket. That word I know.” The blonde knight turned to Howard. “You don’t seem a bad man, Howard Slayte. What brought you to those…” She glanced to Navy, as if asking for help with the next word, “…brigands?”[break][break]
“Try ragamuffins. It’s the most complicated word I remember from the dictionary.”

[attr="class","Navypog3-bot-1"]

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Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 5:50:47 GMT

mint frost and Elisabeth Fiorelli like this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","gunstest6"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

When Navy's Pokémon met Howard's, the admin would lose. That unspoken agreement passed between the two like a spark. They would be expected to fight whenever they met on the battlefield, now, and the two would have to dance in a charade to ensure that the other did not fall. Not yet, anyway.[break][break]

If Howard fell, that was one last ally in the war against Eternatus. If he fell, another would rise and take his seat. Howard was no avatar. He was replaceable. Yet his friendship with Navy was not. [break][break]

"I wanted to follow my dream of archaeology, and I needed money. I was in debt, and they took me at my lowest point and raised me up." Howard looked at Zaria with a furrowed brow. His eyepatch was worn and faded, with an iota of scar tissue poking out. "I walked that road happily, content that I was able to keep my dream alive. That I wasn't the failure that people thought I'd become." [break][break]

There was a world out there where Howard had let go, and simply integrated back into the masses of society. A world where he worked as a clerk or something equally insignificant, where his dream had been turned to ash and nothing remained but lost futures and false happiness. He had chosen to become a monster rather than allow that to happen.[break][break]

Meeting mint frost was the biggest mistake of his life. [break][break]

"But at some point, Zaria, I looked around at the path I walked, and saw nobody walking alongside me. I had left them all behind, and when I looked back, I saw that the path had reached a crossroads, and I had left the people I started the journey with behind." [break][break]

He wiped his eye and his hand came away wet. Howard put down the bowl of stew.[break][break]

"I don't know when I lost them. All I know is that I can't turn back now." [break][break]

His eye found Navy. [break][break]

"I didn't want this to happen. I just wanted to sit in a museum and fulfill my passion until I grew old and died. I'm sorry, Navy. I didn't want to destroy your town. I gave them orders not to. But I've started something, and I'm not sure I can stop it." [break][break]

How many other members of Rocket had said that? Elisabeth Fiorelli ? Cillian Quinn ? Grigori Sokolov ? Glory to Rocket was not their mantra, it was their dirge.

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

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[attr="class","gunstest6credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Teddie

Navy

He/Him

October 13th

Slateport

Heterosexual

E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

5'10" / 177.8 cm height

In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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3,576 posts

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TAG WITH @teddie

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 6:09:29 GMT

howard slayte likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Navypog3"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-big-img"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-post"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-icon"]

“I don’t think intentions matter half as much as the result.” Zaria said at once, gripping a wooden spoon like a dagger. “An evil action is an evil action, even if it’s done for good.”[break][break]
Navy, who was opening his mouth to address Howard, instead looked to Zaria. A sad smile crossed his lips, the smile of a man that had nothing but time to contemplate. The road, he found, was good for that. The road left a man alone with himself and his past. Without humanity to filter out those thoughts, for most of twenty long years, he was forced to reckon with himself.[break][break]
“I’d be where Howard’s standing if I made one or two choices different in my life.” He turned to look at his squire. “I almost joined Rocket twice. The first time was when I was seventeen. They were just another color gang back then. No one thought they’d turn into…” What was Rocket? Revolutionaries? Terrorists? A crime syndicate? As both men knew, that would depend on which side emerged from the storm as the victor.[break][break]
“Anyway. The second time was right after Gabe died. I almost took a job from them. I was pissed. I hated the League as much as I did Rocket for letting a kid his age go into Sootopolis and get himself killed. I thought…maybe if I got on the inside, I could figure out who killed him. Surely it’s gotta be one of the big wigs.”[break][break]
Only with age did he realize it was an arrogant thought. Whoever killed his brother, he deduced, was no one special. To presume otherwise was pretentious at best, dangerous at worst.[break][break]
“I would’ve done awful things while I figured that out.” He looked back to Zaria. “And I’d be standing just where Howard is. And I didn’t not do those things because I’m a good person. I did them because…I don’t want the kid who gave me my name to be disappointed in me, any more than I want my best friend to look at me and say ‘ah, so that’s that kind of person you are in this story.”[break][break]
The kind of person he is, for the record, is an idiot and a hypocrite.[break][break]
“But you didn’t join them, or act on those thoughts.” She spoke as some impartial judge of the universe, bereft of context, left only with moral law to guide her words.[break][break]
“No, but it was for someone else. I don’t think I’m any better than Howard.” His smile faded, tone stern. “People are going to die. Maybe Shred. Maybe Baki. Maybe just a whole bunch of people your history and the League’s records won’t care about. That’s on you, and no matter how hard I hit you, nothing I can do will hurt you worse than that. Hoenn’s people will die by their protector’s hands.”

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Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 7:14:00 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","gunstest6"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

"There is no evil that cannot be softened with the passage of time. No deed that cannot be forgotten with the stains of time." [break][break]

But that was not fair to the lives of the slain. An incalculable amount of people had died over epochs and eons, and their names had been forgotten. Nobody had been capable of chronicling their existence or writing their deeds down. When they perished, and those they loved perished, nobody would remember their names. They'd be forgotten in some dusty obituary that nobody bothered to read.[break][break]

kyle lopez had already passed. When Navy was gone, there would be few who remembered the name of Gabriel Navidson. [break][break]

"That's my punishment. I'll remember my own crime, and I'll carry it until I'm placed on the steps of Ever Grande at the executioner's block. Then, when my head rolls, I'll ensure that my crime is remembered forever." The damning part of Howard's speech was that he meant it. He did not want to die. He'd likely run from it until the moment where escape was impossible. He was craven, but he would not breach his ideals. "This is my vow." [break][break]

Even if Navy defended him, even if Howard appreciated the sheriff's aid, he would not disillusion himself. Even if the admin had wanted to save the world from the threat of Eternatus, he had broken his friend's trust and displaced an entire town. In the process, he had unleashed a monster. Pandora didn't like it when Howard played with her box, and the box had been opened.[break][break]

He would be punished. If the League won now, with its current council, Howard would die. If the League lost, Rocket would brand him as a traitor. Howard had no place to call home. [break][break]

"We'll save them. Regice was beaten once, it can be beaten again. But if it is..." [break][break]

It would all be for nothing. If Regice lost now, Howard's struggles would be for naught. He wouldn't be able to assemble the rest of the Legendary Giants, and Hoenn would fall. It would fall because he failed, and that taste was a bitter draught to swallow.[break][break]

"We'll bring down Eternatus, and then fate will decide how my story ends." [break][break]

Suddenly, the admin raised a hand, his eye narrow and alert as he looked into the darkness. He nudged Zaria and gestured into the blackness. As their eyes adjusted, they found something staring back.[break][break]

"Shit." [break][break]

Eyes surrounded them, slithering in the dark.

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

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[attr="class","gunstest6credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

Teddie

Navy

He/Him

October 13th

Slateport

Heterosexual

E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

5'10" / 177.8 cm height

In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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TAG WITH @teddie

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 8:15:28 GMT

howard slayte likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Navypog3"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-big-img"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-post"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-icon"]

Zaria and Navy were united by the call to action. Both stood up. Zaria draw her black blade. All Navy had to his name was one feather. All the same, he drew it, standing just behind the lady knight. Two eyes in the darkness turned into ten, into twenty. A herd of Wooloo found them in the darkness, gazing out at interlopers in this land.[break][break]
Were this modern Galar, the sheep would leave them be. Wooloo were herbivores, subsisting off of berries. Something about this land roused within them killing instincts.[break][break]
“We shall table this discussion for now.” Zaria said, her words as decisive as a cut from the blade in her hands.[break][break]
“Agreed. I, uh, I’m not a swordfighter, but I’ve got your back.” With that in mind, Zaria took the lead. She swiped away the first of the Wooloo that stampeded into the camp, only to have another come from the opposite side.[break][break]
Navy’s bladework was clumsy. He moved a mite too slow. The Wooloo meant to crash into him…[break][break]
And then, it simply did not. A barrage of astral force sent it flying into the darkness. The sheep had no time to even murmur a death rattle. From the darkness rode a steed as black as midnight.[break][break]
“Valkyrie!” Navy cried. Sitting in a holster on the side of her saddle was a gun. Navy approached her without fear or hesitation. Grabbing the gun, he moved it as if born to hold the weapon. At last, Zaria and Navy were equals.[break][break]
Her iron head and his anchor shot blasted them back into the darkness.[break][break]
“Arceus, girl.” Navy huffed after all was said and done. The Rider, at last, had his steed. Navy hugged the horse, happy to have his old friend. “Arceus, I’ve missed you.”

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played by

Magnetic

Admin Fox

He/Him

May 9th

Rustboro City

Bisexual

Archaeologist

Rocket Admin

5'9 height

The future will tempt you, the present will indulge you, but the past will shackle you.

awards

2,245 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @magnetic

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 8:41:45 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","gunstest6"]

[attr="class","topimage"]

[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

Navy had a feather, Zaria had a sword, Howard had a rock. [break][break]

It didn't seem particularly fair, in retrospective.[break][break]

"I've got your back from behind!" Howard said from behind the sheriff and their knightly companion. Hiding behind an old man and a young woman wasn't particularly brave for virtuous, but when the best weapon Howard had was a rock, it was best to leave the fighting to the pros. "I've got a rock!" [break][break]

He threw the rock. A Wooloo growled at him as a welt began to form on its forehead. [break][break]

Now he was down a rock, and in its place he had gained an angry foe. This was going well. If Shred Zeppelin heard about this, Howard wouldn't hear the end of it. A Galarian laughing at Howard's matchup with a Wooloo made Howard's blood boil. It was enough to make the admin dodge the ensuing headbutt.[break][break]

But before his fluffy foe could wheel around to strike at him again, Valkyrie arrived. Death came silently, and it need not wrap a shroud around its foes as it arrived. The Wooloo were gracious enough to wrap themselves as they fell. Howard looked at the Spectrier graciously, hiding behind Zaria as he did so. [break][break]

"This is your horse, Navy?" [break][break]

As he watched Navy embrace his steed, all Howard could do was watch silently. The exchange made his heart ache. He was glad that Navy had found the horse he so constantly mentioned, but all it did was remind him that while Navy and Zaria had a connection to Galar, Howard had nothing. He was a stranger in a strange world.[break][break]

It made him miss Shirley. [break][break]

"The hero has his steed." [break][break]

He tried not to sound bitter.

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

[attr="class","gunstest6pkmn"]

[attr="class","gunstest6credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

close tab

played by

Teddie

Navy

He/Him

October 13th

Slateport

Heterosexual

E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

5'10" / 177.8 cm height

In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

awards

3,576 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @teddie

An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 9:08:02 GMT

howard slayte likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Navypog3"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-big-img"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-post"]

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In his squire’s voice was a hint of…envy? A bitter grudge that Shirley had not joined them in the dream? Navy couldn’t say. All he knew was that they were one step closer to getting back.[break][break]
“We’ll be in Wedgehurst by midday tomorrow.” Navy announced. “Valkyrie will make it easy going, even if we can’t all ride her. We won’t have to worry about the hands as much.”[break][break]
He couldn’t believe it – any of this. When things settled down and they slid into their bedrolls, Navy stayed awake for a while, gazing up at the sky. It reminded him of that first day of the first cycle, when he fell asleep in Motostoke. Some part of him thought he would close his eyes and wake up back in Hoenn. As it happened, he did not. He woke up in this Galarian dream. He remembered the dread he felt upon that realization, which he was sure was shared by all among their company.[break][break]
Just so with the second cycle. Navy roused in the early morning light under the same purple sky. A smarter man, like FERNANDO SILPH, could probably take the data from their first stay and calculate precisely how long a day in Galar was in Hoennian seconds. Navy, bereft of a scientific mind but blessed with a romantic heart, understood things would be fine if they hurried.[break][break]
Only when he stood up, checking his pistol, did he notice the crystal hanging from one of Valkyrie’s braids. Zaria noticed it, too, and took it in hand.[break][break]
Inside the crystal, they saw the land of the dead. Each of them was a ghost, their lives all ended prematurely. It was a world of limbo, a borderland between this life and the next. It was a promise of what would come, should they lose this war.[break][break]
That crystal, too, disappeared into Zaria’s grasp.[break][break]
“Let’s hit the road.” Navy said, walking beside Valkyrie rather than riding her. He did not want to kindle further jealousy in his friend’s heart, not now. “Here’s hoping we can find you a weapon when we get to Wedgehurst.”

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 9:29:24 GMT

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[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

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The idea of Admin Fox getting a weapon and fighting alongside Michael Navidson in a hostile world was one that much of Rocket would find amusing to no end. The only weapon Howard needed, they'd say, was a pencil, since all he was good at doing in the little museum that he called an office. [break][break]

jayden cross would gush, glad to know that the admin had picked up a weapon.[break][break]

Cillian Quinn would laugh, claiming that a rat could not slay a dragon. [break][break]

Elisabeth Fiorelli would deem it a meaningless skill. [break][break]

Zev Harcourt would find it pointless, the senseless thrashing of a lesser creature. [break][break]

Only Shred Zeppelin and Grigori Sokolov would find meaning in his struggle. [break][break]

He missed them. [break][break]

"You sure? I'm getting pretty good at this whole 'rock throwing' shtick." Howard threw a rock at the charred remnants of a tree, striking the last remaining branch. It shattered into nothing but blackened bark and tiny twigs. "See? Pretty good!" [break][break]

In spite of the prior night's exchange, Howard's voice was cheery and measured. The prior incident was forgotten, it seemed. Yet Howard had kept an even face before, when laying siege to Dewford. That mistake had cost the sheriff dearly, when he had been too busy chasing Kyle's ghost to look at the people around him. [break][break]

Navy had chased a shadow while Howard had writhed in the darkness.[break][break]

"Zaria, do you know anything about Wedgehurst? Anything coming back? Maybe a feeling or a memory? Deja vu?"

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

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In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 12:02:37 GMT

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[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

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MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

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“The chips are nice.” Said Zaria. “I…don’t think I went this far south very much.” She scratched her head, as if trying to prod information out of the brain beneath. Answers were not forthcoming.[break][break]
“I’m curious what sort of weapon you’d prefer.” She said, looking to Howard. “There’s nuance to your choice. Spears give you reach you wouldn’t otherwise have, especially when you use it in tandem with a shield. Glaives are excellent. Halberds are probably the best weapons ever made.”[break][break]
“Spoken by a swordswoman who’s never seen a gun.” Navy held up his long, cumbersome blunderbuss.[break][break]
“Swords are pure.” Zaria said without reservation. “When I was…” She spoke as if remembering something new. “…young, I always looked up to knights and heroes. A sword is a hero’s weapon. I wanted to be one, too.” It was her turn to look up wistfully at the blotched sky, just as they came into sight of the walls of Wedgehurst.[break][break]
“Told you we’d make good progress.” Navy smiled. “It’s all about knowing how to cut through the right fields. Amazed I remembered all the right places to go.”[break][break]
Standing on top of the gate, wielding a halberd, was none other than…[break][break]
“Deputy Dave?” Dave, one of Navy’s oldest deputies, looked down in shock at the three travelers and their Pokemon.[break][break]
“Travelers? From Postwick?” He gawked. “How in the world did you lot survive the j-”[break][break]
“The rider,” another voice called, “The rider. Arceus, the Pale Rider is back.”[break][break]
And suddenly, on the other side of the gate, there was an outcry of noise.

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 18:49:53 GMT

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[attr="class","gunstest6body howard"]

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Hope was a strange thing. Fickle. When it was needed most, it tended to blossom forth like a flower reaching for sunlight, unaware that the reason for its growth was due to the soil being stained with blood and despair. Hope was pure, but it could only grow from misery. Galar had suffered, and as a result their faith had grown to accommodate.[break][break]

The suffering loved a symbol.[break][break]

"Navy, they're calling you the Pale Rider." Howard stated the obvious as he looked up at the sheriff. People were willing to believe anything, if it suited their fantasy. It was what made discerning truth from fiction so frustrating from a historical perspective. How much was true, and how much was merely written by the victors? Hoenn would have to answer that question too, someday. "People will look anywhere for a martyr, I swear." [break][break]

He saw the expression Navy's face and stopped. [break][break]

"There's no way." Howard's voice was awestruck. All that time that Navy had spent with Slow Dancer and Silver Bullet... For a city rat, Navy was remarkably good with horses. He had never questioned it. It had just made sense with the sheriff and cowboy aesthetic. "Navy..." [break][break]

He turned back to Wedgehurst's wall, and the increasing crowd of people looking at the trio and Valkyrie. He took a deep breath, and coughed into his fist, preparing his voice. [break][break]

"People of Wedgehurst, the Pale Rider has returned!" Howard's voice boomed. "Open the gates and make way, for your hero has arrived!" [break][break]

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

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Navy

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E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

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In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 19:31:01 GMT

Noel Parker and howard slayte like this

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[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

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MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

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So the squire commanded, and Deputy Dave manning the gate answered. Wedgehurst’s great gates, rebuilt since the Rider last travelled across the land, creaked open. A crowd gathered on the other side. Navy exchanged a glance with Howard. These Galarian peasants wore the faces of good folk from Dewford, from Rusboro, from Slateport. Navy recognized the faces of the long dead, folk he hadn’t seen in years.[break][break]
All here, all greeting the Pale Rider with the same muted enthusiasm. At first, he thought they would cheer for him. Some did. Most took off their hats, if they had hats, or bowed their heads. There was a reverence to the way they were treating him that clued him into one simple fact: something was wrong.[break][break]
“Ser,” a voice from the crowd said, “I’m sorry for your loss. If only you’d arrived just a bit sooner.”[break][break]
Navy’s voice caught in his throat. He felt a lump there that would not dislodge itself. The crowd parted like a sea, beckoning him further into the town. One person took him by the hand, leading him through what should have been a moment of triumph towards…[break][break]
A raised stone platform, six feet long.[break][break]
And atop that platform lay…[break][break]
Noel Parker, holding a shield. Or was it Gabriel Navidson? They looked alike. They had the same hair. His face seemed to switch between one or the other. Morphing one way, twisting the other.[break][break]
“Your son passed just yesterday.” The stranger said. “He was delving through a ruin in the wilds with his loyal companions, trying to gather enough coin for the tithe.” At least this stranger, whoever they were, seemed to care.[break][break]
“Raphael.” He said, understanding now who he was looking at. Navy hated himself for forgetting his son’s face. Memories came flooding back, and with them came an understanding of why he took to Noel the way he did. His young deputy reminded him of someone, someone forgotten in an old dream.[break][break]
Zaria stood beside the hero and his squire, stock still. Her expression was a stone mask, her eyes drawn towards the shield of the Fighting Master spread across his chest.[break][break]
“Arceus…” He tasted every flavor of guilt. Galarian guilt for the son whose face he had forgotten. Hoennian guilt for the Deputy who was fighting through hell without him. Plain father’s guilt, for never being there enough for either of them.[break][break]
His eyes drifted to Howard, and he said the only thing he could think to.[break][break]
“Would that you attacked Dewford yesterday.”

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POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 20:19:49 GMT

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If Howard had attacked Dewford a day before, Howard suspected that little would change. Time didn't flow properly here. Twenty years passed in a single day, and a few years in this world had passed in a year outside the dream. Raphael was dead because fate had decreed him thus, there was little that Navy or Howard could do to stop that fact. [break][break]

It didn't mean that Howard didn't feel terrible. His brow furrowed as he lowered the brim of his hat. [break][break]

"Sorry." It was a terrible thing for a father to lose a son. It was hard to imagine the expanse of the burdens that those who had lived through the dream must shoulder. Twenty years. Two decades. Two thirds of Howard's life, spent living a life that would eventually evaporate like mist, forgotten by all those who witnessed it. "He was brave." [break][break]

Brave, and for what? Had this world even cared? How could it, when all that existed were falsified memories? Raphael Navidson existed on no records, only in memory. [break][break]

Perhaps that was enough, but it was obscene to think so. This man had been born into a world of light, and raged against its death until the darkness claimed him. [break][break]

"Mourn him. I'll be back in a second." Howard's eye flicked away from the corpse of Noel Parker . Noel had saved him from Nihilego, at his own expanse. Howard didn't see Raphael's corpse, but the corpse of someone else. Both were heroes, in the end. "Stay strong, Navy." [break][break]

He stepped away, before turning to the stranger that had proclaimed the death of Navy's forgotten son. His eye flickered as he peered at them.[break][break]

"You...?" [break][break]

Michael Navidson [break][break]

NOTES

- March forward, squire.

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Navy

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E4; Gym Leader

Sheriff

5'10" / 177.8 cm height

In the warrior's code, there's no surrender. Though his body says stop, his spirit cries, "NEVER!"

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An observer of eons cannot feel the warmth of another.

POSTED ON Jun 5, 2024 21:03:26 GMT

howard slayte likes this

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[attr="class","Navypog3"]

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[attr="class","Navypog3-1"]

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MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
howard slayte

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
ROUSE THYSELF, RIDER.

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It was not the man who answered, but a woman. She interjected herself into the melodrama with a biting laugh.[break][break]
“Come now, Howard. He’s fulfilled his role. Let him step off the stage with grace.”[break][break]

In Her hair shone the light of dead stars, their final gasps traveling eons to arrive at this precise moment. She regarded Howard as one might an old friend. When the storied archaelogist’s mind reached to draw a connection to a name, it should have told him he was speaking to Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki.[break][break]
Instead, he knew instinctively that this was Crystal. Crystal Navidson. Adjusting Her glasses, She peered over his shoulder and spared a moment of plain disgust for the armored knight accompanying Navy in his grief.[break][break]
“My father’s squire looks well. It is as they say. Something ends, something begins. My brother falls, and the people’s first hero comes to stand in his stead. I suspect it will be hollow comfort for him, where he’s going. Those who’ve played their parts can but watch.”[break][break]
A small pause. She turned, beckoning him to follow. Folks parted for Her as they did Her father.[break][break]
“Tell me something, Squire. What do you see, when you look at the faces of these townsfolk?”

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