#maglore

so its Corbeau stalking hours yall

itd start the moment mags and volo step into lumiose because corbeau wanted to keep an eye on urbain after securing the loan, and filing away all the little pecularities about these two -- this is where he starts referring to volo as 'the second tallest man in lumiose' XD

and that night corbeau is planting bugs/testing his monitoring tech in Hotel Z and hears mags (surprisingly enthustically) join the ZA royale but also listens in on them being oddly chummy and catching up with AZ, and then a *very* furtive convo between just volo and AZ

where volo confides that mags was MIA for a few years (sidenote: ZA timeline who?? idk her) and that she came back... *different*

powerful certainly but... jagged. saying that the zygarde cell AZ had spotted *tried* to sneak into their luggage, but she had snatched it out of the air without so much as a glance before letting it slink inside, nearly shouting,

"i mean, you *saw* her eyes." then shutting himself down and finishing quietly, "she's... volatile."

and AZ says the royale might do her some good, then gently redirects by asking if they plan to return to their old flat (which we will revisit 👀) which prompts an odd, secretive grin from volo, assuring AZ theyve got something set up - "the only question will be where to settle down"

five days later, corbeau brushes over the overnight appearance of a bizzare house where a courtyard once was to get his hands on the interpol file of one "Magpie Starcarver" (codename: Carver) only to realize its the *public* file without much detail - and hasnt even been updated to reflect going MIA; he presses 'Lady Clear' (an actual npc lol) who finally admits she does have a source promising the full file "...but you're not gonna like their conditions, boss"

SMASHCUT to the scene i was trying to write bc its So Fun:

Corbeau attending the equinox masquerade thats put on every year at the parfum palace in a (shiny, ofc) roserade "costume" thats largely just his usual suit and slacks, just with black-and-purple velvet flowers at the cuffs and hems, and a thorny vine where his glasses-chain was to hold up his plain black mask -- an assemble downright blasé compared to the man who meets him

(and theres a whole "well, one of us is going to have to change"//"i doubt anyone will mistake us for one another")

because *of course* its volo -- in an austentatious, *caped,* emerald three-piece, with red-and-blue silk flowers cascading down the sleeves, a clinging collar and white spats, and the platinum-blond updo of (this) century to truly embody the roserade persona

anyway volo was of course looking to scare him off, but he quickly gets under corbeau's skin and recognizes the ol' "good intentions, faulty methods" relents to letting corbeau keep tailing them (read: stringing him along) but keeps that file all to himself

a frustration exacerbated when he hears mags and urbain have jumped from V to F rank overnight (i like to think he already had inklings abt Urbain and Jett) and deciding to call the debt due -- meaning the interest rate was so high that the $1M stacked up in days lmaooo

now. magpie and corbeau's first meeting.

does not.

go well.

Namely, because that phone call -- in her mind -- sounded like a *ransom* call (bc i thought certainly it was 💀💀) so she goes in thinking urbain has been fucking kidnapped, and the only thing keeping her from kicking the doors down is that lida is scared stiff and mags' anger isnt *helping*

(which is a good place to interject-- mags *is* volatile, switching moods quickly and brutally, vacilating between distancing herself -- esp apparent in not having a 'team' to speak of until she gets deeply attached to the rogue mega absol -- and taking a borderline possessive protection of volo, AZ, and the three kids. she'll blame it on leftover instincts of the pokemon bodies they were stuck in, or her losses in yarnham, but in truth its something deeper, and more automatic, more that she is still actively in trauma mode and doesnt realize it than anything that could be labeled 'lingering')

the moment she enters his office, then, corbeau *understands* what volo had meant that first night. the woman in the file had had an attentive but mellow and warm pink; now, they are lurid magenta, bright enough that they almost seem to discolor the sclera when the sweep and dart around his currated collection. once she meets his eye, she never glances away again, seemingly seeking to arrest his gaze in a way that has the hair of his nape standing on end (she blinks rarely but *consciously,* like shes remembered whats *expected* of that particular bodily function)

but the razor wire their conversation starts on evaporates in an instant as she blinks, leans back into the couch and *smiles* ("oh, this is just extortion," she says, playing at something like relief but no less wolflike when she adds, "there would have been much more of an *issue* orherwise.")

("an issue," corbeau knows from many a similar broad intimation, to mean *bloodshed.*)

and refusing to be cowed, he makes the same intimation in *offering* to sort this out by bringing mass battle to the steps of the hotel

mags *snaps* up the offer in a way he's only ever seen his own arbok latch on, fangs-first, and he knows hes a heartbeat from a devastating *crunch* when Lida leaps up to accept the proffered alternative.

and, because he now watches magpie as duly as any predator, he sees her *flinch,* and chide herself, and turn that venom *inward.*

so he follows her from job to job, only the slightest bit cowed from waltzing into the once-haunted apartment to judge and deride, waiting outside and rewarded with a fascinating glimpse -- volo, once more stitched to her side and masking what corbeau can now identify as *concern,* asks with a searing sort of gentle apprehension if theres any chance one of those ghosts could have been *laventon*

(and corbeau is a hisui-aboo so he *knows* that name, but before he has time to process the implications of that--)

magpie shakes her head firmly, and with more stablility and stoicness than he's heard from her in their scant hour of aquaintence, she assures him, "No. I ferried--"... "I *helped*... No, he's not here."

corbeau doesn't scramble but he does slink into an alley shadow when they leave, and goes inside to study that portait and let his mind click-click away, opting to text magpie the details of the next job, then brings the phone to his ear to let the next owner of the building know he would be taking the painting off his hands

later, corbeau watches through surveillance footage as the duo walk sedately through the lumiose museum, amassing a baffling number of loose spewpa at their heels; the only disruption to the quiet of the display hall coming when magpie breaks down in near hysteric giggles at the sight of one of the bugs perched on a suit of armor, joyful tears coming to her too-bright eyes and a smile splitting her face that he find himself lingering too long in studying. the tour culminates in the two pausing before an encased toga and her asking when he'd decided to donate it;

"when you were away," volo starts, expression tightening. "i... i know i said so, but i looked everywhere. everywhere we'd ever been, everywhere we wanted to go. i was... scared. inconsolable, really," he says with a grin, only half in jest. "at some point i started leaving things behind. maybe as bread crumbs at first but... eventually in preparation to look beyond convention." and he takes her knuckles in hand, gentle even as his gaze turns molten, "i pried open the walls of this world once, and would have done so again if it meant finding you again."

(and if corbeau is short of breath, he can only imagine what magpie, cheeks flushing and visibly trembling with restraint, must be feeling)

HOOBOY okay got in the weeds a bit there😏 and theres frankly no way to make that rank up battle more sexually tensioned than it already is soooo

the night of the Tower incident, after forming the human ladder, corbeau gets Spooked when Mags pulls him up onto the roof one-handed -- but more surprised to see her expression is not exactly calm but stoic (locked in, if you will), with a flash of amusemed appreciation for his efforts; whatever unknowable, inhuman thing lingers behind those eyes is reined in, under control, but *ready,* it was born and honed to do what comes next;

that steady gaze turns from him to the tower as she says, "youre the kind of man who can keep a secret or two. youve certainly kept a few of ours so far.... keep this between us, hm?"

before stepping off the roof and disappearing with a quiet susseration, reappearing in the next breath with Urbain under one arm and the fading outline of a golden blade in the other hand; urbain struggles and protests, they cant just leave floette to struggle *alone* and Mags getting geared to argue only for corbeau to break it up and send her ahead "to finish the job"

he of course seizes the opportunity to grill urbain about what he knows ("not much"//"what youve observed, then") about the duo in his closer proximity; urbain admits she doesnt sleep at the hotel often (mutters, "if she sleeps at all") and echoes that unnerving volatility before puffing up a bit to say that she's always adamant abt keeping them safe, that she is one of the kindest people he's ever met, that seeing her battle is "something else. *she* is so--" before clamming up, and corbeau dwells on that for a while before a flash of lurid green kicks him into gear, muttering that maybe theyre "more like AZ than theyre not" before hauling them both to safety

postgame, corbeau calls mags to the office on her way back from the graveyard intent on finally digging the info out of her, and starts bluntly with asking her where she was before coming to lumiose and after some increasingly irritated dissembly she relents to talking abt the handful of people she was able to save in yharnham, but inevitably starts dwelling on those she couldnt; when corbeau points out that she "survived, if nothing else" Mags bares her teeth in a smile that twists wry and lights her eyes manic and responds, "did i?" before detailing viscerally that her body was evicerated, her mind mangled, her soul *wounded*

"and since youre so desperate to know," she jabs, "in every way that matters--" (to *her*) "--no i did not survive. i recreated this body from memory, and it has never once felt like my own"

and atp she's all up in corbeau's face but when he meets her aggression with an attempt to touch her arm she smacks it away, corbeau taking it as a personal slight and her jeering something word for word from his own thought process and he finally snaps

they tousle and break a table (he says she owes him 20 grand for that or something) and it very much pivots into being horny

smashcut to volo getting a text to 'come get magpie' and tearing over and throwing open a door only to find mags all tied up and deeep in subspace, with corbeau sitting behind her looking as if he's been mauled - suit torn in places, glasses broken ect

and something something they bang as a threesome and corbeau's parting shot is that she owes him 300,000 poké for the damages XD

ANYWHO thats all i got for rn, i think the dlc doing dimension hopping is gonna let me COOOOK down the line lol

i do have a mental image of corbeau going into mags' magically expanded baba-yaga house to see a few of her companions running around -- a guardian scout from botw named Cherry, a galdur pup from Palia named Fridr, an oresqueek from guardians of azuma, bloodmoon ursaluna snoozin, ect -- but i don't know where thatll go so it might just be a setting for dlc happenings idk