#coiledqueen

the moment that they are recognized, kendria is overjoyed. the smile on their face threatens to split their lips apart, but they can't and won't contain it. wow, wow, wow is their mantra in this moment, they can hardly believe it, has no choice but to watch her in wonder as she makes her way over to her barstool.

" what the fuck? " the sentiment is returned in full with laughter that bubbles from their lips, astonished. when she purchases their drinks, they murmur a quiet, stunned thank you, not too different from their bartender who takes the cash and turns in a whirlwind to prepare their drinks.

their barstool swings to the side and they keep themselves there, eyes wide as they take her in. wow. one more, just for the sake of it.

" well, shit, i could say the same for you! this is a dump. " it feels like second nature, falling into their old banter with her. they had definitely gotten a lot sharper since she had seen them, that was for sure, so much that others may be more inclined to call them a smart-mouth. if these people could see her when they were a teenager they would know that was kindness, compared to what they were saying back then.

they wave a hand in the air in lieu of an immediate answer, gesturing for her to sit down in the seat next to them.

" it's all yours, miss battle frontier. " not an ounce of cruelty is in their words, just a bit of teasing as she sat. they swing back forward to exchange their old bottle for a new one, but for the most part, they're all hers. " what have you been up to this whole time? hear you're still kicking ass. "

"...boo," lucy announces her presence with a playful wink, silently sliding into the seat beside strelitzia.

❛ ...didn't expect to see you in a place like this. rough day today? ❜

UNPROMPTED. ↪ accepting.

❝ jesus fuck. ❞ strelitzia visibly flinches on her seat, which is a first. it's undeniable just HOW UNCOMFORTABLE strelitzia feels in this setting, as if the slightly spilled cup of orange juice wasn't another sign.

she doesn't even recognize lucy at first, at least NOT IMMEDIATELY. her eyes narrow and she unclenches a fist she didn't even know was clenched in the first place. ❝ lu'— what are you doin' here. ❞ this is embarrassing.

Lucy's gigantic Seviper, Vera, pushes open the door to Sierra's office with ease, fangs and shimmering scales glistening under the fluorescent light. (As it turns out, most Rocket GO grunts morph into total pushovers in front of the massive serpent...and her trainer-turned sparring partner.) She offers the admin a curt nod of greeting, hissing expectantly. Impatiently. (Vera actually admires Sierra quite a bit, but she's been sent here to deliver an important message.) The Pike Queen is waiting. You should know where to find her.

Oh, that's so charming. A little overdramatic, perhaps, in its own delightful ways, but it's quite charming no less.

Sierra didn't really react to the presence of a giant snake in her office, at first - she saw one of the grunts' badly trained Pokèmon sneak in one time too many, after all - but as soon as the giant beast is recognized she can't help but let the tiniest of smirks appear.

The Admin takes just a second more to check her files, making sure everything is saved and closed before putting away papers and turning off her pc, stretching as she stood.

four (ish) headcanons I am making up about our characters

Carla regularly keeps in contact with Lucy, and it's one of those situations where the Pike Queen truly needs to keep an eye on this woman, because she has supervillain tendencies and very little restraining those tendencies. It's not an actually obligation of Lucy's, but there's an anxious feeling in the back of her mind that this woman is dangerous in a way that the area isn't ready for.

They've battled before. Lucy, as a Poison Master, got to experience facing another Poison Master with different combat tactics than her. Carla is a dual Water/Poison user with a focus on destruction through aggressive manipulation, distraction, and infection. Hers is less of an envenomation, and more of an aggressive beat down infection.

Carla bred an Ekans for Lucy. It is a twin headed snake, and it is doing well.

Lucy actually enjoys the company and the danger of having Carla around. (: She's a very scary and impressive woman with a long repertoire of disease research.

≻ what is your muse's most dedicated project ?

this answer may change based on the point in time in silver's life that he may get posed that question, but currently it'd have to be the commission that steven requested. it had been something he talked to silver about sometime in october, an idea brought forth as a means of continuing to see his work elsewhere; to see the process silver would undergo to do so in reflection of his the person he had grown to be. and, to celebrate his graduation from naranja.

something that silver had to spend some time properly researching and demo-ing at home before he'd taken the trip over to hoenn to begin. a fresco painting in a part of steven's house in mossdeep: a dome over an entry hallway. it would be the most ambitious piece of work silver had ever conceptualized himself doing, let alone doing, and thus he gladly accepted such a challenge with earnest. he viewed it as a chance to prove to steven how he never quite gave up in his journey... despite what he believed so strongly before.

the painting will take the span of a few months, but it's technically something silver's currently doing in 'real-time' blog timeline ( december ). it will take him from november until sometime mid-december, a break for the holidays, and then another trip back late january - may to finish.

the painting is going to depict the landscaping and scenery of hoenn's paradise-like beauty / slightly showcasing diversity of the local 'mons. portions dedicated to hoenn's water-type pokemon in the waves of the familiar ocean, touched by the tropical scenery of mossdeep and the other islands. it's an exercise of control, how much a posture / body change can change his art and present the mini-challenge of how best to handle painting while laying down. an exercise of learning how to paint in a different medium, how intricate and yet simple the process of painting into wet plaster can be.

it also was worth it in the long run, for teaching him just how important art history actually is. ( said with his realization over the fact he simply didn't pay attention in those classes in the low-opacity bg )

≻ what does your muse find beauty in ?

silver has learned how to find beauty in creativity. through painting and the general process of becoming an artist / making art, he's learned how to break down the movement and pattern of everything around him, to see the life in every formation. it's been a lesson learned over years, years that didn't make sense - that confused and frustrated him - before it only just finally started to click when he'd been alone in naranja.

maybe it'd been a lesson he learned from hassel in class one day, lectures that touched silver in profound ways that only did so because he'd been at his lowest and so strongly wanting to find some kind of meaning to it all. maybe it'd been the ways wallace had talked during silver's days staying with steven, the way how he'd always manage to say that everything had its beauty and grace. even the ugly things.

that sometimes, looking for and finding the beauty in especially the ugly things, was something that might set him free from it all. maybe it'd be the way how the world's color would only burst and finally make sense to silver on fundamental levels the day he'd met grusha. maybe it'd been a combination of it all, in the end.

either way ... silver's also learned to find the beauty in life. the very act of living, and the life all around / underneath / above him. a sense of wonder returned to his eyes, an inquisitive and analytical mind awed by the majesty of it all.

@coiledqueen. zodiac headcanons.

“so. I’m not upset. I just need to know who lifted and ate my entire stash of pink pokeblocks. they were buried deep in my bag for a reason.” (she’s a little upset)

( *♡ marsha's pokémon have something to say: open! )

ㅤ a grin never leaves minnie's face⸻ whether gleeful or mischievous is all semantics. even the wag in her tail rarely reveals cause. two hands hang limp before her, like paws that dangle, with dexterity that lets each digit twitch at a different time. anticipating.

ㅤ "i know!" minnie giggles, reveling the tension in the woman's shoulders. she is upset! even if she says she's not, minnie can feel the defeat pulsing from her in waves. negativity pulses off humans in waves. it's thick, almost like laying in the ocean with waves that roll under you, not over. a lullaby only for those unaffected.

ㅤ minnie knew very well who did it. pokeblocks don't sustain the way lucy barters. she opens her mouth, unfurls her long tongue to allow a look inside: proving innocence or the deed well done. maw closes, tongue still lalling. "you wanna find out who? don't look so sad! you look sad! you're mad!"

ㅤ that tongue licks up the side of lucy's face, feeding off her grief.

"my, my...what brings you all the way out here, my dear? how unexpected."

lady lucinda's voice is sweet like poisoned honey, her sharp eyes gleaming as they focus on the new arrival. within her apothecary located on the edge of vanitas's shadowy forest boughs, the mysterious, isolated noblewoman tinkers with odd medicines and sinister poisons. her presence--even judging by tall height alone--is intimidating. unsettling. just like the smirk that always seems to be on her face.

it's no secret that she'll sell her wares to just about anyone for the right price, crown-aligned or not. lucinda is always careful in covering any tracks, though--despite the cloud of suspicion surrounding her, she wears noble innocence so beautifully when she needs to.

now vanitas's poison princess (as she's known in some circles) quirks a bemused eyebrow from behind her cluttered counter filled with mysterious vials and parts. her fingers stroke the jeweled head of a giant, slumbering seviper, dancing across the scales. "can I help you?"

Jules didn't often wander far from the castle. It was where she was born and raised, and while the occasional lust for adventure could draw her out for a festival or the like, she'd never gone this far from its walls. Much less to somewhere so intimidating.

Funny, how she wasn't afraid to face Clair, but this was something completely different. Perhaps it was the circumstances, or the atmosphere; they filled her lungs and brain with fear, urging her to have nothing to do with this woman, to turn around and run away now. But to do so would be breaking a promise, and she couldn't do that, so she steeled her nerves and steadied her voice.

"Yes, you can. I'm here in place of Leuca-she's sick, but she asked me to pick up...'her usual'. I have the gold with me."

Her feet didn't want to take another step into that apothecary, but Jules forced them, crossing the room with unusual swiftness. As she did so, the servant fished around in her small bag slung over her shoulder, pulling out a modest sack of coins.

she glances up at grimsley's approach and cracks a smile, wordlessly shoving a chair out for him with her heel. it's been a while. (but nothing new. the two free-wheeling spirits were used to disappearing for months at a time, after all.)

"...hey, you. back from the dead again?" lucy asks, flicking a chip in his direction, her grin widening. "the surfing not cutting it for you anymore, or what...?"

Grimsley could never resist the call of his particular vice, its whisper as persistent as the wretched gambler’s confidence. It imbues his stride with a nonchalance that belies his fervor, eyes sweeping across the interspersed poker-tables, crowded by an auspicious array of unfamiliar faces. He preferred it like that, if no one could distinguish his particular tells then he was already playing with a favorable hand. Lucy, is the one person he looks forward to seeing, greeted with a listless wave of his hand. Having shed the ostentatious attire of his past there was something dreary about him now, solemn even, but that didn’t extinguish the fire that burned in his eyes, nor their shared itch for a night of exhilarating risk taking. He lowers into the chair almost as effortlessly as she extends it, the feeling of solace that comes from the oppressive atmosphere placating something jittery within him. “ Who would keep you on your toes if I were to be truly gone.”  mirth curls impishly at the corners of his mouth, gesturing vaguely for her to deal their starting hand.  Others would come; they were inevitably drawn to this sort of proceeding like sharks to freshly spilt blood.

“ Surfing is... different.” He wagers ambivalently, there was nothing quite like this after all, it was a tacit understanding that the two of them shared, something he didn’t have to bother explaining, something else he preferred about this place too. “ There’s a certain thrill to it, coasting on the waves risking life and limb, sometimes, I can’t help but miss this though.” An admission as he accepts his chips, idly toying with one as if in deep contemplation. “ A real challenge.”