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Loyal Inoue

mayogargle

mayogargle

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2025
Messages
54
"He said death wasn't the end, just a crossing. Back then, I thought it was nonsense, all that talk about kami and incense before patrols, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe something does stay behind, not in some afterlife, but in the city, the wind, the people we fought beside. Maybe that's enough." - Hikaru Inoue, City 8, Daisy's Lightning.
​


hikaru.png

Opinions on the folk of City-24.​


Loves, Respects, Likes, Neutral, Dislikes, Hates, Despises,
Jakov Borisov - Things aren't what they used to be since we last crossed paths. You climbed the ladder, made it from SG-3 to lieutenant. I slid down mine, stripped from Ensign-Major to Private First Class. Not that it shocks me. I was the one who put your name forward back when the brass still listened. As for the rest of Daisy's Lightning... most of them are names on a wall now, or still standing beside it, waiting for orders that won't come. We're all that's left. Just the two of us, holding what's left of a broken line.

Emiyo Marcum - Watching what time has done to you... it cuts deeper than I expected. I tried, always tried, to steer you clear of the worst of it. But trouble has a way of sniffing you out. Or maybe you're the one chasing it, without meaning to. Either way, it never misses.

Emiyo… I'm sorry. Truly. I have to cut you off now, before they force my hand and make me hurt you.

Jack Sullivan - I can't fault you for taking the promotion. You played the game, and the game favoured you. But what they did... handing stripes to a convict while passing over ten years of service like it meant nothing... that's not just a slight against me. It's a slap in the face to every conscript still marching under that banner, still believing the Combine rewards loyalty. We bled for them. And now they hand out rank like candy to men who'd have been in the brig if things still made sense.

Marcus Cross - You're too keen. That sort of thing gets people killed. I can't stand the ones who come alive in war, who treat it like a game. War isn't meant to be enjoyed. It's not a proving ground. It's hunger, blood, and the slow grind of losing what's left of yourself. And yet you smile through it, like you're chasing some half-dead idea of honour. I read something once, before all this. An old American book that tore into people like you, mocked them for thinking war was noble. I can't remember the title. Maybe it'll come back. Until then, I'll keep watching you. Not because I fear you. Fear left me a long time ago. But I don't trust you. Not one bit.

You absolutely sicken me. A man who takes pleasure in senseless killing is not a man - he is a monster. I should know: I wore the uniform, earned my medals, and saw what it costs. Those ribbons on my chest were paid for with other people's blood. You think I do not hear what you say behind my back, that I have gone soft or lost my way? Listen closely: I have not. I have seen too much to cheer for death. You are the one who has lost his way, a coward who dresses up slaughter as sport.

Cherie Gautier - I don't trust you. I'm sorry, but I don't. I can't. I've lived through too many bad turns, people like you, same pattern every time. The second I ease my grip, the second I let the guard drop, you'll be ready. That's not paranoia, that's history. Still... you're my friend. You'll stay my friend, right up until the moment you're not. And when that moment comes, it won't be words or apologies, it will be the kind of ending you don't come back from. One of us will be dead, and it won't matter who started it, only who is left breathing.

Wyatt Callaway - Wyatt, I don't even know where to start. After everything we've seen, you still bite off more than you can chew. Half of me wanted to put a bullet in your fat skull. The other half of me, which is colder, weary and a little ashamed, wants to watch how far you'll take this before it breaks you.

Fizz Garcia - Look, you're a decent kid, but too eager, honourable even, and that's dangerous these days. Your naivety won't be admired, it'll be exploited. People like Wyatt Callaway, Troy, Elsa, the upper-tier loyalists, they don’t care about goodness, only what they can prise from it. They'll wring you dry like a wet rag and cast you aside when you're spent. Stick with me, and I'll make sure you stop being everyone's easy mark.

Kenji Hashimoto - You're my brother, but I don't mean 'brother' in the soft, family way. You're the one you choose when everything's been stripped down to survival, not kin, but the one who still honours a crooked pact and keeps his hands out of the worst of it. There's no romance in that, no sentimental glory, just two men tired of being betrayed who agree, tacitly, to watch each other's backs. It's a practical kind of loyalty, born of distrust and old scars, and if there's a beyond to meet at, I'll see you there; if there isn't, remember I'll keep the ledgers, and I won't forget.

Roland Hewitt - I don't think I've ever known someone whose past is as heavy and broken as yours, Roland. The world seems designed to grind people down, to leave them marked by mistakes and tragedies they never fully escape. I've been wrong before, too quick to believe propaganda, too willing to accept the lies people pass off as truth, too ready to let others shape my judgment for me. That mistake has cost me more than I can measure. I will not let that happen again.

My opinion this time is mine alone: you are a good man. That doesn't mean the world will see you that way, or even that goodness matters anymore. But I'll stand with you, because in a life full of betrayal and emptiness, loyalty without a hidden motive is the only thing left that feels real.


Ask to be added...​
 
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"At last, it's over. Nearly twenty dragging years - gone. My service has ended. Freedom, they call it. If that's what this is. As free as one can be in a world like this. The doors are open now, yes… but they all lead to more emptiness... I'm sure one day I'll be called back, a lack of bodies or something. But for now, I'm free." - Hikaru Inoue​
 
"Cherie, or rather, 'Cherry'. She's an MCP facilitator, not just any, but the one in charge.. Saw the rank flash on her armband. Doesn't fit. Not the usual breed. Not that cold steel in the eyes, the walk like a strutting strider. She's... soft. Cute. Makes you want to relax. Bad idea.

Back in the old condemned zones, before the liberation was finally 'over', there was a girl selling peaches near a military checkpoint. Sweet smile. Eyes like dark water. We let our guard down. Two good men didn't return from patrol. Rosaline... she had that same soft light. Believed it. Paid for it. Learned the cost in blood and empty bunks.

This 'Cherry'... maybe the Union shapes them differently now. Maybe she is just a cog, smooth and quiet. Or maybe it's a lure. The soft step before the boot. Heard an old sergeant, after Ryu bled out in the sewers, mutter about traps wearing pretty faces. Thought he was just bitter. Now... not so sure.

Doesn't matter if she seems adorable. The uniform's the uniform. The duty's the duty. Keep your eyes sharp. Your weapon closer. Trust the structure they built, not the face they put on it. Learned that from Emiyo. Learned it hard. Won't unlearn it for a pair of soft eyes and a new name. Stay wary. Stay alive. That's the only crossing that matters anymore." - Hikaru Inoue
​
 
mayogargle said:
"He said death wasn't the end, just a crossing. Back then, I thought it was nonsense, all that talk about kami and incense before patrols, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe something does stay behind, not in some afterlife, but in the city, the wind, the people we fought beside. Maybe that's enough." - Hikaru Inoue, City 8, Daisy's Lightning.



View attachment 45457

Opinions on the folk of City-24.

Loves, Respects, Likes, Neutral, Dislikes, Hates, Despises,​

Jakov Borisov - Things aren't what they used to be since we last crossed paths. You climbed the ladder, made it from SG-3 to lieutenant. I slid down mine, stripped from Ensign to Private First Class. Not that it shocks me. I was the one who put your name forward back when the brass still listened. As for the rest of Daisy's Lightning... most of them are names on a wall now, or still standing beside it, waiting for orders that won't come. We're all that's left. Just the two of us, holding what's left of a broken line.

Emiyo Marcum - Watching what time has done to you... it cuts deeper than I expected. I tried, always tried, to steer you clear of the worst of it. But trouble has a way of sniffing you out. Or maybe you're the one chasing it, without meaning to. Either way, it never misses.

Emiyo… I'm sorry. Truly. I have to cut you off now, before they force my hand and make me hurt you.

Jack Sullivan - I can't fault you for taking the promotion. You played the game, and the game favoured you. But what they did... handing stripes to a convict while passing over ten years of service like it meant nothing... that's not just a slight against me. It's a slap in the face to every conscript still marching under that banner, still believing the Combine rewards loyalty. We bled for them. And now they hand out rank like candy, to men who'd have been in the brig if things still made sense.

Marcus Cross - You're too keen. That sort of thing gets people killed. I can't stand the ones who come alive in war, who treat it like a game. War isn't meant to be enjoyed. It's not a proving ground. It's hunger, blood, and the slow grind of losing what's left of yourself. And yet you smile through it, like you're chasing some half-dead idea of honour. I read something once, before all this. An old American book that tore into people like you, mocked them for thinking war was noble. I can't remember the title. Maybe it'll come back. Until then, I'll keep watching you. Not because I fear you. Fear left me a long time ago. But I don't trust you. Not one bit.

Cherie Gautier - I don't trust you. I'm sorry, but I don't. I can't. I've lived through too many bad turns, people like you, same pattern every time. The second I ease my grip, the second I let the guard drop, you'll be ready. That's not paranoia, that's history. Still... you're my friend. You'll stay my friend, right up until the moment you're not. And when that moment comes, it won't be words or apologies, it will be the kind of ending you don't come back from. One of us will be dead, and it won't matter who started it, only who is left breathing.​

Ask to be added...​
Click to expand...

+jessica chen
Please add when possible thanks
 
"What do people really see when they look at my hands? Just skin, just bone, just something ordinary? Or do they see the cracks, the callouses, the stamp of ECHELON burned into me like property? Maybe they notice, maybe they don't. Maybe they pretend not to. If they look hard enough, maybe they'd see the dried blood still caught under my nails, the proof of what I am, what I've done.

I used to tell myself I could balance it out, that I could tip the scale back in my favor with a few good deeds, a few empty words about redemption. But the truth doesn't care about words. The truth is simple. I kill. I've killed. And no matter how far I run, war knows where I live.

They say I'm free now, no more conscription, no more orders. But freedom's a joke. The shadow of it all is still here, breathing down my neck. I say I want redemption. I whisper it like a prayer. But it's just noise in an empty room. I'm not fooling anyone, least of all myself." - Hikaru Inoue
​
Mental cohesion - fragile.​
 
"I believe the moment of decision has finally come, though I wonder if it was ever truly mine to make. The choices stood before me like grave markers, each one a reminder of what has been lost. Wyatt Callaway sealed his own fate when he abandoned me, and that wretched woman, Elsa Becker, followed him into the shadows, Marcus Cross not far behind. Perhaps betrayal is the only language people ever truly speak.

And so here I stand, weary but resolved, staring into the abyss that beckons. Well then, Hewitt, let us see where this path carries us. If there is meaning in suffering, perhaps I will find it at the end of this road. If not, then at least the silence will be honest." – Hikaru Inoue
​
Mental cohesion - stable.

Updated relationship with Marcus Cross, and added 'Roland Hewitt' relationship.
 
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