Too many muses for one head.

Wherein Steefno tries to push all of his muses into one big chest, hoping to have at least one always at hand.

[steefnomuses]

DAUGHTEROFLEFAY - independent original character in the world of Pokémon, penned by Stefano.

 - eighteen: years of RP experience

 - make sure to read: about Muse and Mun

 - open to: interactions with anyone, Pokémon or not

 - feel free to: send asks, starters, memes, whatever you wish!

[steefnomuses]

DAUGHTEROFLEFAY - independent original character in the world of Pokémon, penned by Stefano.

 - eighteen: years of RP experience

 - make sure to read: about Muse and Mun

 - open to: interactions with anyone, Pokémon or not

 - feel free to: send asks, starters, memes, whatever you wish!

[steefnomuses]

renaissanceduroi​:

“Balance is the necessity of life. To only create, or only destroy, or to see these two as mutually exclusive, is ignorant and close-minded.”

“And yet, even that destruction must be creative in its end goal. Destruction without a purpose only leads to a stagnating cycle, in which what is created gets destroyed, and what is destroyed gets created anew. Hunt a boar for food and materials, not for careless killing. Demolish a house to make room for a new one, not just to watch the explosions. Growth is born from the addition of creation and destruction, not through their conflict.”

She chuckles, idly scratching one cheek in a shade of embarrassment.

“Well, that’s my opinion as a mere kindergarten teacher, Mister Lysandre. An intellectual like you must have deeper opinions on the matter.”

[steefnomuses]

rocketheorum​:

He’s so fucking triggered right now. Yes it’s Diana’s fault but at the same time, Eli reminds himself that this woman knows nothing about him. That she cannot be doing this on purpose because no one knows what his triggers are. However it doesn’t change the fact he’s upset- ‘An awesome Rocket Admin.’ How many times had similar words been used to describe his own pre-determined future? As if it were a given this future would bring him happiness; as if it hadn’t resulted in the wreckage of Eli’s very soul. His own soul weeps for whoever Jean’s parents are, wherever they may be-

Stop projecting, he tells himself, sternly and silently. There’s nothing he can do. Even if there was it would probably come back on him later. If anything he should try to be glad; Rocket was a terrifying place, especially to a child, and whether Eli liked it or not Diana made these poor unfortunate children feel safe while they were here. If nothing else… Eli told himself he should be greatful that her presence would her minimize the trauma of the situation these kids were in.

He pushes his glasses up a bit and hits the release levers on the pokeballs in his hands, three small Rattata solidifying from the light emitted. As soon as they are out of their pokeballs they are focused on him.

‘Eli, Eli! Whats wrong?’

‘Did something happen?’

‘You look sad!’

The Kantonian’s eyes slide towards them at the questions as they chatter at him in concern, but he doesn’t reply. He’d love to, really he would, but he tries to keep his ability to understand pokemon on the down low. When he does speak it’s to address Jean and Diana.

“These are Ichigo, Shiroi, and Matcha. Or Ichi, Shi and Cha,” he says, scooping up two of the small pokemon to place on his shoulder, as the third is already climbing up the sleeve of his lab coat.

“You can pet them Jean, but you have to be very, very gentle.”

Team Rocket Diana is a... curious existence. Despite the fact that she kidnaps kids with the same ease as breathing, despite the fact that she has broken enough knees to kneecap a soccer championship, she would be appalled to know that she has just stepped so violently on Eli’s toes.

This does seem counterintuitive, but Diana’s morals - the old Diana, the best kindergarten teacher that never was - are still there, sleeping like embers in the ruins of a burnt-down house; she is still caring, still affectionate, still deeply kind. She just had to shove all of those aspects of hers away from her job, deeply fracturing herself into who she is while on an operation and while off it.

Still, she doesn’t know, so her smile doesn’t falter (not that it would be allowed to, even then); she just gently moves Jean forwards, still in her arms, towards the nurse.

Jean, on his part... come on, you will have seen this scene a thousand times. You will have been this scene a thousand times, how many years ago that was. He is delighted, that is clear (as I have decided on a spur-of-the-moment blurb just yesterday, the young boy loves Rattatas); and still he is hesitant, almost shy, as if the pokeymans he so likes were to disappear into a cloud of smoke as soon as he were to touch them.

He extends his hands, oh so slowly, stopping them a hair away from Ichi, then he retracts them, then he moves them in again; then, so gently, ever so gently, he just boops the Rattata. That seems to be enough to convince him that they are real, they are there; and then he giggles, radiant, as he starts petting the pokémon without a care in the world, blabbering small words as he goes, completely taken by the small world he is now part of.

“This one will be a great trainer, one day. You can see it in his eyes.”

Perhaps out of this blasted hellhole, she doesn’t add. She doesn’t even quite think. Just a fleeting spark of hope quickly chased away, before it can be noticed by anyone. To hide and protect it? Who knows, who knows.

[steefnomuses]

[steefnomuses]

"I'm sorry to tell you, I still have no idea what you're talking about."

"Okay, so."

She opens the small agenda she keeps at a set page, full of names and arrows; her expression scrunches in furious concentration.

"From the top again. Jean likes Rattatas. But Marcus also likes Rattatas, but dislikes Jean, so he doesn't want to say he likes the same pokémon as the other. His second favorite is Jigglypuff, but he fears the others might see it as girly and hides it, so he says he likes Houndooms instead. But here's the thing - Helena is afraid of dogs, so when Marcus says he wants one she starts crying. And if Helena starts crying, then the small ones - Arthur, Marie, and Bernadette - start crying too."

She licks her lips, drinks a sip of coffee from her flask. Then she starts again.

"This prompts the 'grownups', Daniel and Rose, to start going for them, because they have to calm down the small ones because 'they are grownups', so they try to steal the jar of cookies to distribute them among everyone and stop them from crying. Which is all nice and good, but I am still legally dead so I can't go around buying cookies, which means I have to raid the pantry and bake them instead. And that's when Clara, bless her, she offers to help, but she burned herself once already and I don't want her to hurt herself again."

More coffee. The page on the booklet gets turned rapidly, to another series of name.

"I'd ask for help to the grownups - the actual grownups, I mean - but David and Steven are on a mission, Eleanor is on guard duty, and Anna manages to burn everything she touches, it's almost a superpower."

The agenda is slammed shut. On Diana's face sets an expression of grim determination.

"Again. I need to bake three jars of cookies. Help me."

[steefnomuses]

rocketheorum​:

There’s confusion on his face as he watches Diana; it was odd enough that she was here, but it seemed as though she was holding something behind her ba- The train of thought comes to a full stop as he realizes that is a child following after her, hand in hand. Fury lights his eyes as Eli realizes what is happening right now, honey gold eyes wide and sharp as knives, as he gives Diana the dirtiest of looks.

You bring one of your kidnapping victims into my office?? His mouth stays a thin, tight line despite all the things he would like to say. Regardless of how he feels about this situation - there is now a child in the nursery. Regardless of how they got here, they are still just a child, and he’s not so irresponsible as to act out of turn in front of a kid.

There’s a slow long exhale on Eli’s part, eyes shutting as he pinches the bridge of his nose in irritation. This is fine. Its fine. Just chill out. He can pretend this is fine.

“Diana… what a- pleasant surprise.“ The words come though somewhat gritted teeth. Can you hear him screaming internally? “You’re here to see the small pokemon because…?”

His question hangs in the air, even as he’s already reaching for Ichi, Shi, and Cha’s pokeballs.

Let me tell you about Prince Rupert drops.

“What.”, I can hear you say. And well, you would not be wrong. This does seem like an unlikely detour to make in this specific situation. To be honest, it is. But it all makes sense, or at least it will make sense by the end of the message. Bear with me for a bit.

Prince Rupert drops. They are made by quickly dripping molten glass into cold water - the superheated material instantly solidifies into something that resembles a tear with a long, thin tail. And from that moment on, you can do literally anything to the bulbous part. You can smash it with a hammer. You can hit it. You can try and break it with a vice. No matter what you will try, the tear will furiously refuse to give up.

So far, this seems like a recipe for a supermaterial of some kind. But there’s a catch - a pretty terrible one. You see, you just have to gently nip the thin, fragile tail, for the entire thing to explode. Not break; not shatter; explode, into glassy dust.

Because here’s the thing. When liquid glass is forced to cool so rapidly, so abruptly, all the energy has to go somewhere, but can’t. Thus it remains frozen, into material stress on a gigantic scale. In the bulb, it is so concentrated, so balanced, that the piece of glass is virtually indestructible by virtue of the petrified explosion lying beneath its surface. But the tail is not. And you only need the slightest unbalance, the most gentle upsetting of the scale, for the frozen explosion... to unfreeze.

Diana is a Prince Rupert drop. She is chipper. She is happy. She is content. Because the instant she isn’t - chipper, or happy, or content - then she will explode, and take everyone nearby down with her.

Well, there we go. These were just over three hundred words to explain why, exactly, Diana runs over Eli’s conflicting expressions like a truck over a pebble. She could get mad. She could get offended. She could demand an explanation. But she can’t get mad, she can’t be offended, and she doesn’t need an explanation, because she knows deep down inside her that everything the nurse thinks is, by the end of it, true. And she can’t accept any of it, lest the tail of the drop get nipped.

So she smiles instead, the warmest smile, as if she had just been met with a hug and a cup of hot chocolate.

“As I said, Jean wanted to. And he’s going to be an awesome Rocket Admin one day, so he needs to know aaaaall pokémon... but starting from the small ones.”

As the boy starts nodding, she bends briefly, lifting him up effortlessly and holding him in her arms. He chuckles in response, before opening his arms wide, as if to grab the entire nursery, and sagely agrees. “Aaaall pokeymans.”

[rocketrcborn-deactivated2024011]

@daughteroflefay​  liked for a starter!

They called her the Pied Piper; the connotations behind the nickname were enough to make even Eli’s cold facade break. There was a lot he could stomach, but Diana’s skill at manipulating children was something that turned his stomach. He tries to ignore her at every avenue, trying to block out her entire existence.

His expression falls as he watches her step into the pokemon nursery, assuming she must be here for a check up or healing, and silently hoping this encounter ends quickly.

[steefnomuses]

Ah, yes. “The Pied Piper”.

It’s not a nickname she has chosen herself (just like most nicknames are, all in all). It’s not even a name she overly appreciates. It is dirty, slathered in mud and smelling of violence. She isn’t any of that - well, she is most of that, but not with children! She cherishes them, holds them dear, more than any supposed “parent” might. She protects them - after all, weren’t their former caretakers weaker than her, if she managed to snatch them they decided to come with her? She makes them happy - after all, didn’t they abandon their old life without a single doubt? They never cry, never hunger, never lack for anything. They are happy. They are hers.

And yeah, it happens - occasionally - that she has to give one of them back. She opposes it, of course, but what can she do? She’s just a young girl of 23, and they are strong and powerful! And so she gives them back, knowing they will never forget her. Never.

Jean is not one of those, though. He’s a child, no older than four, a shock of red hair barely covering green eyes, a smattering of freckles on his face. He wasn’t visible, when Eli first noticed Diana; but now he follows, held by his hand by the woman, looking around with a curious gaze.

“Come on, Jean, come on! Mister Eli is going to show you the small pokémon!”

A small, genuine smile on her face, directed at the nurse. Please? Pretty please? Cherry on top?

[rebornbythunder]

Maybe he'd started to realize that there was no getting out of it. Maybe he was adjusting to the fact that he wasn't going to wake up in the morning and be free and clear. The finality, the reality of the situation finally was starting to settle, heavy on his shoulders but manageable. That's alright. He could make it work. In his current line of work, their interests aligned, he could take the situation of working with Team Rocket as bitter medicine, and just... Try and pull his weight hard enough he avoided getting involved with the more morally hardlined stuff. Y'know, like murder. At least directly.

But there came another issue. His current assignment, spying on the league, hovering around Kanto and Johto, was damn near the exact opposite of his plans. He had an outline for an electric specialized team, and now a baby cyndaquil sat in his lap, clearly from another region. He was jumpy, erratic, and suddenly changing his plans for, what looked to outsiders, no good reason.

Red needed to find a damn good lie to get away with this, and soon. Between the way he couldn't sit still on his day out with his rival earlier (a chatty gossip makes a very good starting point when they have ties to your intended target, Red was working), his sudden about face back and forth, and his new set of piercings, it looked like the man was in the middle of some sort of genuine crisis. Red knew he looked like he was having a crisis.

He was, after all, having a crisis.

All this sort of coming to a head, with Red chain smoking in the designated smoking area at the Rocket HQ. He'd been there over 30 minutes, staring into nothing.

[steefnomuses]

“Someone is having a crisis.”

Hey, you were the one who said he looked like it. Don’t get mad at me! I’m just stating the obvious!

But yes - there she is, Diana. The more observant among you might notice something... strange about her, like the black uniform with a large red R she’s wearing. Well, yes, I got her roped in something unsavory. What are you saying?I lasted exactly a week before throwing my character into angst again? I mean, you’re not wrong, but you shouldn’t say it.

Diana, the Rocket grunt with an unusual degree of seniority. Here she comes, looking as tranquil and placid as she ever does, but unencumbered by the child or three she usually takes with her (wouldn’t want them to breathe in cigarette smoke, after all). She saunters in, as if she doesn’t have a single care in the world (though she does), before plopping herself on a chair, close to the fresh recruit to Team Rocket.

“Maybe this big sister can drag you out of it?”

[admcloria]

There’s a wish we’ll always have Through thick and thin, the good and bad To rise up and overcome the worst nights

Independent Pokemon Trainer Original Character Penned by Yoko

Credit: template

[steefnomuses]

Picrew. Kind, stable Diana; and less kind, less stable Rocket AU Diana.

[lilplanty]

↖ is now accepting curious anons.

[steefnomuses]

[[I have updated my rules, including a new cautionary one about my Rocket AU. Please read it. I don’t want to jumpscare anyone with their trigger. Thank you.]]

[steefnomuses]

Inventory Check

Her trusty spear. She has used it for a fair bit of years, by now, although it is a veritable Ship of Theseus - every single part has been replaced multiple times. Still, she considers it hers nonetheless.

[occultistarts]

Send ‘Inventory Check’ to see an item in my muse’s inventory.

Plus descriptions of the item(s).

[steefnomuses]

Outsiders.

Even in summer, especially when it is fairly late in the season, nights can get quite chilly in northern Kalos. It’s still a pretty balmy temperature compared to fall or winter, of course; but Diana is underdressed, at the moment, nothing but sandals and a summer dress, so she can’t quite stop the shivers. Not that she dislikes them, of course - in fact she prefers them to the uncomfortable sweatiness of hot weather - but it remains true that, as she walks towards home, in the small village of Chateauroux-sur-Seine (not too far away from Lumiose), she feels the small bites of somewhat brisk weather.

She was at one of her pupils’ place, invited by his parents for dinner; and as evening turned into night, the occasion turned out a bit longer than expected. So here she is, her steps quick, as she tries to be home before night turns into early morning. She is still a way away, though, and she has to pass through an unreasonably dark stretch of road. During the day, it offers a nice view of the Kalosian countryside; at night, nothing but pitch bleakness.

It would be a pretty bad place for any kind of unsavory meeting, wouldn’t it?

[steefnomuses]

“To be honest, I don’t really care for anyone’s... affiliation. I am not the police. That’s their job, not mine.”

“But if  - and I do dare you, if - you try and go after any of my children, for any reason, I will not stop until I am either dead or shredding you.”