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PLAYER LOCK-IN

CHARACTER: cassidy
ROLE: PLAYER
PKMN: ♁ alolan ninetails | snowcloak | dazzling gleam - imprison - ice beam - freeze-dry - mist - ice shard
DESIRED STAR LEVEL: 2

there is a common saying that cassidy likes to think of. it goes like this:

everyday is a new opportunity.

sometimes it ends with for a better tomorrow—as in, so long as the sun rose, you had the power in your hands to change your future. but for someone like her, who had long since averted her gaze from the sun's rays, cassidy saw the phrase in a different light:

the different light being a stray pokeball, forgotten and alone.

the ball was clean and looked well taken care of. in honesty, it had probably just been an accident, the stray brush or a faulty pokeball belt. the owner would eventually come back to look for it after realizing that it was gone. and so she picks it up and puts it in her pocket instead.

she takes her time toiling some time away, unwilling to release the pokemon so soon after she'd taken it; at dusk, cassidy finally settles herself in the outskirts of mauville, making sure that she was alone before opening the pokeball.

what kind of pokemon would she find?

to her surprise, it's a pokemon she recognizes. grey body and dark shaggy fire, red eyes that stare at her with snarling teeth. it was a mightyena; but morever, it was sevatian beau's mightyena.

a former coworker. now a potential enemy if she didn't play her cards right.

in the least, she had been friendly to beau's pokemon, and the mightyena only looked confused and not hostile even though it was originally an intimidator.

"hi duchess." she greets, reaching to pet her behind the ears.

knowing beau, it was only a matter of time before he'd catch her. with dogs like him, he could find one of his own anywhere. and knowing him, he would.

Beau Fontaine

she always thought the casino of a sad place. of course, most people do. or at least, they were aware of the systematic enablement of addiction, to extract money out of people who could not spare the change. and that was the least of their transgressions; she was well aware of their less legal operations, ones that involved vulnerable girls and weapons and so on. she did not like being here.

but in a way, she also felt a strange sense of nostalgia for its golden opulence; the grand display of wealth and full of powerful people. it reminded her of past days, for the people who decided on the models and the jobs were the same people who would sit at this very table. at times, they would even take her down these gilded halls, to shows and lavish parties and the like. it was a liminal space, one that connected to other grand places. these resorts were not just for gambling after all.

and now a player at the table, cassidy thought that perhaps this place wasn't so bad after all. she had always been attuned to numbers, and she was good at card games. of course, it did help that she was using a 'rare' technique called counting cards, or to put it simply: cheating.

she tracks the cards with eyes, lacquered nails tapping the table as she made her bet; hit, it means. another card, another push closer to the fabled number that was twenty-one. everyone flips, and look at that; she was just shy of the limit.

another win.

but cassidy has no time to celebrate her victory, because rainy is already shrieking in her ears, telling her that she was too obvious. it was so loud that she thought that the player next to her could hear; but they were none the wiser, their faces just as blank as hers, only perhaps slightly unhappy at their loss.

she knows she's been winning perhaps a little too much. but she could not help it. card counting was too easy, and she hated to lose. the stack of chips in front of her had quickly grown, gathered from the pastures of the poor players.

"perhaps i am just lucky today." she says, in response to both her win, and rainy's awful yelling. she stacks the chips, one by one with deft fingers, gold bangles jangling on her wrists. she would always love luxury so, and she never had many chances to wear jewelry. it was nice to be able to enjoy herself. must rainy yell at her for every single thing?

behind her, a security guard was approaching.

rainy huynh

ambrose kisses with a ferocity she never expects, even after all the time they have spent together. cassidy did not hunger like them, but she was eager to please, and she let them take from her as they wanted. when they break, ambrose leaves her flushed and out of breath, her eyes trailing them with pleading eyes. come in, they tell her, and she listens obediently, stepping through the door frame.

"how sweet...you remembered my favorite." she says. there were two glasses of wine on the table, and she takes both, handing one to ambrose. bubbling and light, it's scented with honeysuckle and citrus, crisp and perfect for the warm air.

but before she takes a sip, she thinks they should toast, raising the light yellow liquid, dim against their light.

"cheers, to us?"

ambrose orion

so it was a KECLEON after all. she should know better than to be caught off guard by the likes of such a devious pokemon, but even she could not account for everything. fortunately, dazzling gleam is enough to incapacitate it for now, as it lands itself into an open dumpster.

but now plans have entirely changed course, and she hears the signature click of a pokeball being opened.

cassidy turns right into a PROTECT—a spinning mass of ice and rock; she's lucky she didn't get caught in its teeth. dangerous nonetheless, it throws her body away from fernando and into the ground, her back crashing against cold concrete. she gasps as her breath is knocked out of her, fernando's stolen balls bouncing on the ground around her.

she hopes to the gods that they don't open.

there's no breath she can pull from; her voice becoming temporarily mute. if she were a better trainer, perhaps her pokemon would've exited their balls as easily as silph's. but loyalty came at a cost she wasn't willing to pay, her only true companion the ninetails at her side. vidya steps forward, deflecting away from the protect to cast a white MIST in the air, obscuring her from fernando's view.

buying time, it seemed, for the inevitable fight.

[attr="class","poketeam"]

FERNANDO SILPH

taking with Cillian Quinn

in the league's eyes, there was no innocent rocket. that much, she thinks, is something they can agree on. there was no redemption for them either, and for many, prison would be a rocket's last stop.

but hopefully it was not the case for this target—elio delarosa, a rather high ranking researcher who, as with most of his colleagues, conducted morally dubious experiments. rockets do not normally go through such lengths to break out prisoners, but this particular target had sensitive information, and it was their job to ensure that it stayed out of league's hands by any means necessary.

what was interesting about this mission though, was not the means of which they accomplished it, but the person that accompanied her. the quinn's other half; cillian.

underboss.

no less terrifying than tempest quinn—in fact, he had more power and leverage than his counterpart. but in the least, cassidy found herself somewhat comforted by cillian's straightforwardness, and that he speaks with his words worth its weight in gold, ever concise. what she saw is what she received. in a sense, that could also be a flaw; for he was a recognized and wanted criminal. there are multiple ways to accomplish this mission, not all equal.

standing just on the outskirts of the prison, she quietly considers all of them, and asks, "how would you go about this, sir?"

Cillian Quinn
mission

she picks fernando silph of his pokeballs, dropping them one by one into her bag. but the last one was lighter than the others, without the heft of a pokeball inside its interior. she stares at it quietly, puzzled as she holds the final one in her hand.

and then she hears steps behind her.

cassidy inhales sharply. she looks behind her, but she could see nothing in the darkness, either too quick or invisible to the human eye. this was a situation she could not account for, a contingency with no backup plan.

she's left with a decision, one pokemon and two liabilities: the silph ceo and this unknown pokemon. and she needs to make one quickly. "vidya—DAZZLING GLEAM. behind us." she orders. she makes a hasty retreat and steps back, putting distance between them before the IMPRISON breaks from her ninetail's hold.

dazzling gleam is a net wide cast—was this pokemon quick enough to evade it?

[attr="class","poketeam"]

FERNANDO SILPH

took with Elisabeth Fiorelli

she could not help the tiny smile that flits across her face at elisabeth's praise. she was surprised at how much it made her feel happy. for so long she had gone without approval and validation that she had forgotten what it felt like, even if given conditionally.

"thank you, miss elisabeth." she responds, not knowing what other words to say. out of all of the rotations she had done, she hadn't expected an underboss to give her a missive, much less the time of day.

the excitement in her stomach and lightness in his chest lingered; she wanted to surpass elisa's expectations no matter the cost. her mind knows better; her heart did not.

silph was a household name by now, a presence ubiquitous in the region. she vaguely recalls the nature of their heirs—hand chosen. they were the top of the already powerful elite. she swallows, clenching her hands as to not reveal that they shook, and that she was afraid. if this is the task that elisabeth wanted to entrust her with, then she would commit wholly to it, body and soul.

"familiar enough, miss."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

she did not usually like to take from the injured or the sick.

there must be some morally correct criminal out there; someone like a robin hood who takes from the rich and gives to the poor. there must be some sort of line that they would not cross, where their ethics would take hold.

unfortunately, cassidy was no such criminal.

she was an opportunist, generally apathetic and uncaring to anything that did not accomplish her goals. she didn't lack a conscious; she knew what she did was morally incorrect, but the world had wronged her, and so she would wrong the world.

today, she'd set her eyes on the mauville gym leader. it was rumoured that he had broken his arm, and where she'd watched, it was a correct assumption. and his pokemon, all too valuable and strong, were then ready for the taking.

and so this is how it goes:

she needs to distract them. her gible, despite its small size, still provides enough heft to throw a SAND ATTACK kicking up sand and dirt that descends onto josh devlin like a fog.

next, a THUNDER WAVE from her amaura, electricity seeking mainly the espeon, as to knock his mount over.

what is your move, gym leader?

[attr="class","poketeam"]

Josh Devlin

when she had met elisabeth, she had thought cassidy's talents were wasted on the likes of poaching. poaching was a quick job, only meant for the lowest of grunts to make easy money. but it was still a crime, and to cassidy: an art form, to some degree. and she would do it skillfully, as she had always done.

lilycove's abundant tourists made for easy targets, especially if they had already had some alcohol to drink. lowered inhibitions and guard, she found her chance at a stray bar. her target was a patron that was particularly lively, and while they were arguing with the bartender over the tab, she'd filched the pokeball on a pass by, using the distraction to flip the smooth ball into her bag. her practiced hands and confidence made it a quick job, unnoticed and untraceable.

she leaves the scene of the crime quickly. now outside, shrouded in darkness and under the cover of the moon, she sneaks through the streets and alleyways until she's in a rather isolated part of the city. alone, cassidy taps the button of a ball, letting the pokemon materialize in front of her with a bright flash of red light.

it's a cubone.

she looks down on it with a blank face, though it was obvious that she was not happy. it wasn't a valuable nor strong pokemon, so it wouldn't fetch much money in the black market. what a shame. the cubone looks around with anxious eyes at a place so unfamiliar, its trainer not in sight. and then it begins to cry, looking frantically for an out. but cassidy had settled them in a dead end, with her and her ninetails as the guard, and she wouldn't let it run away so easily. she clicks her tongue when it cries, thinking to send it back into its pokeball.

but just as she was ready to recall it, there's a voice behind her.

she turns slowly, her eyes slowly drawing away from the pokemon to the person. a civilian it seemed—civilians usually weren't around this time at night. and they didn't usually interfere with her matters either. the last thing she needed was someone prying into her business.

"everything is fine. this pokemon is only weak and cowardly, is all." she responds, monotone. her gaze draws to the cubone. under her eyes, it flinches away, backing itself into a corner. it was a pathetic thing, not even having bothered to try fighting her before it gave up. but she, ever polite, still turns back to the person at hand. her soft voice had always been a stark contrast to the way she had treated pokemon, hers or not.

"is there a problem?"

adele veronesi

"...yes, ma'am. i've learned much since then." she says, stuttering slightly. the lessons that she has learned were rather cruel; for a child like her to learn how the world works, with their favors and transactions. for the cost of succeeding, rendered by powerful men and the society they have engineered.

she had an idea of what elisabeth was going to tell her next. her heart pounds loud in her ears, the cold feeling of dread drifting across her limbs. but in it was also a sense of acceptance—no, excitement, even. for the doors that elisabeth has opened.

at the end of the day, it did not matter whether she was a model or a rocket; the nirvana of the elite and wealthy was never ending, and there was no one better to navigate it than her. fear and hunger were two sides of the same coin, and cassidy reflected that intention in her eyes, searching deeply into elisabeth's gaze.

"y-yes. i have such connections, and i am more than willing to use them, miss elisabeth."

Elisabeth Fiorelli