MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Sept 16, 2024 0:24:45 GMT

Parts of her yukata were still damp. She had only dried her swords. The rest would come, but she had requested a meeting with the underboss as soon as she could.

She had waited patiently for The Harbinger to finish his more pressing debriefs, meetings with the brass, sitting silently in the waiting room outside. She was still covered in blood that wasn't hers from the battle when she was finally allowed an audience.

She handed the man at the door her swords, shoving them into his arms so hard his back practically hit the wall.

Finally, when she saw the man behind his desk, she went to one knee.

"Tsubame. Thank you for the audience, Harbinger."

It was a far cry from the nonchalant attitude she'd given him thus far. Respect, perhaps, now that she'd seen what he was capable of, what they were up against.

"I have failed to kill Melody Miro. I have failed to kill Navy once again."

No, it isn't reverence. It is the solemn, quiet march of a dead woman.

"Say the word and I shall commit harakiri. Right here if you would will it, though I would need my blades returned to me."

Cillian Quinn
MISSION: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

thorn

the Harbinger

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

underboss

the harbinger

6'3" height

I want corruption, I think I'm the devil in disguise.

awards

8,664 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Sept 18, 2024 1:26:35 GMT

Elisabeth Fiorelli likes this

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Cillian is in mourning. His office is as cold as his mood. He hasn't slept. His head hurts.[break][break]

Sootopolis had fallen. Not with the finality of defeat, but with the bitterness of compromise. His house was in ruin, drowned by Kyogre's seas. Elisabeth Fiorelli was dead.[break][break]

And still, he keeps to his appointments.[break][break]

The death of the man will come long before the death of duty.[break][break]

The dull disinterest in his golden gaze sharpens as Aoki throws herself to the floor, supplicant. Gears grind to a halt in his mind as he tries to reconcile this woman with the grinning fool who'd weaseled her way into S.P.E.C.T.R.A on his recommendation.[break][break]

It clicks when he hears the word. Harakiri.[break][break]

"If I wanted you dead, I'd do it myself. Get up." He clicks his tongue, and the heavy door of the office thuds shut with the glittering energy of TELEKINESIS. "If we fell upon our swords after every failed attempt, there would be no soldiers left in Rocket. Defeat without death is an opportunity to try again."[break][break]

Though the words are not unkind, his tone lacks any warmth or reassurance.

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Aoki Hana

[attr="class","pkmn"][break]

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played by

Nagato

Hana

She/Her

July 7

Pacifidlog Town

Any/All

Mercenary

Grunt

5'6"//168cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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127 posts

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TAG WITH @aokihana

POSTED ON Sept 19, 2024 1:55:59 GMT

She looks up at him, sullen.

She had been denied her honor, paid for it with her life. A life given back to her by this man. She would do whatever he willed with that second chance.

"Very well."

Some life returns in her at that, in spite of herself. She seems almost disappointed in the suggestion that she should not disembowel herself here, with everyone watching.

She stands.

"I have other things to discuss, in that case. The civilians, for one."

She moves right along, as if nothing had happened, though the spectre of death does not leave the room.

The man in front of her looks like a corpse already.

"Saw you saving 'em during the battle. The League's plan already looks bad, using Kyogre as an opportunity to stage an assault rather than a rescue. Why reduce the number we could use in propaganda against 'em?"

He'd been working alongside Navy in truth. That was what she was really curious about.

But she likely couldn't broach the topic now without the Underboss having second thoughts on staying her self-execution.

Cillian Quinn
MISSION: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

thorn

the Harbinger

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

underboss

the harbinger

6'3" height

I want corruption, I think I'm the devil in disguise.

awards

8,664 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Sept 20, 2024 23:22:56 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","twtgm"]

[attr="class","main"]

She seems disappointed. Cillian expects to disappoint her further before she leaves this room.[break][break]

"Take care in how you challenge my decisions."[break][break]

His tone is not cold, though it possesses an edge as sharp as any blade. He did not expect unquestioning obedience and loyalty, but there was a thin line between curiosity and insolence.[break][break]

He expects someone such as Aoki Hana to toe it.[break][break]

"In taking Sootopolis, we set expectations with those civilians who helped us drive out the League. That we would protect them better than their sorry government ever could." The League had delivered a leviathan to the doorstep of the crater city and with it, a flood of biblical proportions. "To turn our backs on them would be to play into the League's claims that Rocket will show no care for the region it rules. Without the support of the populace, we face greater dissidence."

He pauses, allowing her space to interject should she wish.

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Aoki Hana

[attr="class","pkmn"][break]

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played by

Nagato

Hana

She/Her

July 7

Pacifidlog Town

Any/All

Mercenary

Grunt

5'6"//168cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

127 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @aokihana

POSTED ON Sept 25, 2024 1:05:23 GMT

She looks straight at him.

All she can see is her own reflection, staring back at her in his shades.

She is sure if he removed them his gaze may even be half as sharp as the Warrior's. She might even relish that, longing for the sensation of it like a junkie looking for her next hit. A poor imitation of Navy 's, a look she couldn't steal but once in Sootopolis, but the desire to feel something, anything still remains... a hand runs along her stomach, feeling the phantom pain where her blade should be embedded right about now.

It's too bad that he does not remove them. Will never remove them.

But then, could she settle for even a pale imitation at this stage?

"Yes," she responds obediently to his warning.

And then.

"So it was a promise. Quaint."

Eyes linger on the bead of red at the end of his cigarette. A single, smoldering ember falls, white and spent, unable to take the heat and withering at the touch of flame.

She takes stock of herself before she adds,

"Only been here a short while, but even I know there're a hell of a lotta Rockets who've let their ideals fall by the wayside, if they'd ever had 'em to begin with. Whatever justification you've got, Harbie, glad to see you ain't one of 'em."

He was no ruthless Walsh, or cutthroat Monroe. Perhaps it lie deep down in the crushing abyss somewhere, but he had a heart. He was still human. An aberration, something you weren't meant to be anymore when you gave your sword to Rocket, from everything she'd seen and heard. A true wildcard.

But now she was sure, she could pledge her sword to this kind of Rocket at least.

"What comes next?"

Cillian Quinn
MISSION: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

thorn

the Harbinger

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

underboss

the harbinger

6'3" height

I want corruption, I think I'm the devil in disguise.

awards

8,664 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin

POSTED ON Sept 30, 2024 22:26:02 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","twtgm"]

[attr="class","main"]

Quaint.[break][break]

Cillian's eyes narrow at the choice of words, half expecting she might challenge his justifications anew. But whether she now understood or was simply cautious of his warning, she doesn't.[break][break]

"Rocket comes first." He wanted there to be no question of his loyalties. "But though I am a soldier, I am not a robot."[break][break]

He maintained the capacity to love, to grieve. He had loyalties and justifications. It was good to know that Aoki Hana could see them where so many in the League saw only the monster.[break][break]

"For Rocket?" he asks. "For me? Or for yourself?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","tag"]Aoki Hana

[attr="class","pkmn"][break]

close tab

played by

Nagato

Hana

She/Her

July 7

Pacifidlog Town

Any/All

Mercenary

Grunt

5'6"//168cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

127 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @aokihana

POSTED ON Oct 26, 2024 2:43:08 GMT

The woman is taciturn for once, completely and wholly uncharacteristic for the bombast which she usually commands.

She pauses, thinking.

Then, "... Why not all three?"

She suddenly remembers herself, and adds, "That is-- if you're willing, Underboss."

In any order would suffice. She didn't think the underboss would deign to answer her at all, let alone reward her failure by answering any one of them. It was brash to ask for all of them, but neither would she refuse him if he was offering.

Cillian Quinn
MISSION: POST THE FIRST WAVE

close tab

played by

thorn

the Harbinger

he/him

october 28th

circhester, galar

demisexual

underboss

the harbinger

6'3" height

I want corruption, I think I'm the devil in disguise.

awards

8,664 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gavin