dead man walking.

#𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐍𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 is a mutuals-only portrayal of 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄 from the pokémon franchise, following a 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 interpretation with some game (gen iii) elements, canon-divergence, and headcanons .

a study in: prophecy & 𝙵𝙰𝚃𝙴 you cannot escape, when the inauthentic 𝙼𝙰𝚂𝙺 begins to slip, when they say "you were 𝙱𝙾𝚁𝙽 for this" but what they mean is "you will 𝙳𝙸𝙴 for this", coming to 𝙿𝙾𝚆𝙴𝚁 as a child, heavy is the 𝙲𝚁𝙾𝚆𝙽, & 𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙾 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙸 .

𝐝𝐧𝐢: self-inserts, gen-ai, 'dead dove' edgelord pro-shippers (+ those complicit), minors & duplicates .

symbolized by: the dragon (japan), a phoenix, erupting volcanoes and life in wake of devastation, precious gemstones and metals, a crown tossed from the head, red camellia flower (japan), waterfalls of crushing power, & quiet luxury .

𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐲: carrd or perish .

inspiration drawn from: thomas shelby, dr. stephen trange, tony stark, bruce wayne, more tbd .

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: written by ouranos (27+ they/them) est.2014 .

"you know that, and i know that…" thumb works briefly against the spark wheel before a flame springs to life, and the other hand is used to shield it as he draws it toward his face / holds the burning oxygen to the end of the cigarette which ignites behind curved fingers. lighter's quickly replaced within his jacket as the heir straightens, a series of breaths he uses to encourage the burning before steven exhales, smoke pushed as a stream through his nose whilst the cigarette's removed. "… and our friends know that. as does the chairman who, to my understanding, wasted no time attempting to celebrate 'his' perceived victory.

"yet i would confidently wager that today's circus and veritable avalanche of accusations was a choreographed by the chairman -- or at the very least, was green-lit by him. he loathes being wrong even more than i." a small shrug's given with the rise/fall of shoulders, "early into my reign, i warned him what traction the ideologies of magma and aqua had in their most fundamental, basic form had among the average civilian population of the region. he did not listen. i continued to attempt convincing him of the danger such mindsets could, one day, pose…" steel tumbles as steven rolls his eyes, "… in that regard, i did fail."

the cigarette's returned to his lips, held, as he speaks around the object, "it is far easier to convince the general public that one person they believed in is partially responsible for damage wrought alongside those actually responsible, than to ask them to take accountability for their own ardent faith in one ideology or another. it is even more difficult to ask them to accept the fact both were objectively a threat to the stability of the region -" perhaps planet, "- as we know it once they gained the necessary public approval. imagine: burdening an average person with the notion their support helped bolster the courage of magma and aqua, leading to the calamity which took hold… ? preposterous."

and at last, a long inhale is drawn.

"… such is his train of thought, anyway. of that, i have no doubt."

❝ I would welcome you…. but there are far more pressing matters at hand.❞ and even if he remained winded by it he understood, implicitly, that whatever had happened to steven must have been catastrophic; nothing else made sense to him. ❝ your aura…❞ 

though perhaps not the depths of meteor falls he has been granted permission to explore uninhibited by anything but natural formations (& could likely do so blindfolded), iron island holds its own sense of familiarity to steven stone. his history with the location undeniably intertwined, thus he has ever considered the caverns a comfort to his existence. as fate would have it, those same caverns are a location that nigh unfailingly yields him the presence of one he has come to consider 'friend' after little more than a decade. and it is that same friend he seeks, now, as a 'first stop' in his exploration of the world to its fullest / the first beat of metaphorical wings in a sky he'd been released from the cage of championship unto.

… and, it is that same friend whose gaze transfixed upon him yield what steven readily classifies as 'shock', 'confusion', and perhaps even' horror'.

unblinking gaze meets riley's own…

desperate eyes of the other man flitting betwixt left & right sides, from head to heart & even to the ground below him before unfailingly winding up back at his face the empty attempt at a smile wilting mere seconds after it's constructed into being

… upon a face constructed of stony impassiveness, his own stare unreadable and something which covers the mind behind which endlessly sifts through data acquired by his own senses & the course of interaction as it happens.

his stare is only interrupted by the sound of a growl in the throat of a protective ( scared ) pokemon; the moment of sound's detection is met by the shift of dragon-descended eyes to the aura pokemon faithfully bound to riley's side. ( it's growl is audible, ) observation comes instantaneously, ( … it underscores the unknown and corresponding threat of this stimulus. )

and that enigmatic danger is he, himself, as he exists. ( … )

riley's quiet words draw the former champion's gaze once more, and without breaking contact does steven reach into his breast pocket & withdraw a premier ball, enlarging it to proper size as his hand returns to his side / better reveals the pokemon within: a lucario under his ownership, one riley's would recognize the aura of ( however disrupted, muted by the technology of pokeballs it may have been… ) to be one he sired, years prior. it is a sign of trustworthiness even the pokemon cannot deny.

"… your statement satisfies, regrettably, the first curiosity i would have accosted you with." words at last come forth, the mask of control which created steven's expression at last ceding to a certain, exhausted disappointment. "i assume it is gone?" slowly does steven blink, eyes held closed in a fleeting resignation before he allows contact with the guardian's once more.

"the fear you address me with confirms my hypothesis pertaining to such."

"i would like to know what your thoughts regarding lilycove, specifically: though the region as a whole benefits from ecotourism, lilycove is a particularly popular location due to the nearby safari zone and, further, fortree city. the area between the two cities is the largest tract of subtropical rainforest among the eastern regions, featuring many of our endemic species of pokemon in the wild. in addition, the colony of shiny corsola near pacifidlog has data indicating there has been a growth of popularity among tourists at a modest pace, but even modesty is capable of creating something which may cause upset for those unprepared.

"looking forward, it is safe to say the constant influx of tourism will create an itch many developers and corporate owners wish to scratch by testing the limits of where they are permitted to build to accommodate tourists. an extremist approach - such as isolationist policy - is largely unrealistic and something that would come at great upfront cost to the hoenn region, thus a healthy 'middle ground' between preserving the land and benefiting the region's economy through supporting tourism must be reached. as a citizen of the region, what would you like to see?"