at this, her lips curl. she leans heavily on one hand; the other cups the red, stem swinging slowly as she stirs the wine in her palm. the satin nightgown slips suggestively down her shoulder, exposing her flesh as she probes his mind. 

"then take a glass and celebrate."

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

she can't tell if she gets under his skin and that only makes him all the more intriguing. curiosity killed the cat, they say. but she's too clever for death, and she's not a cat at all. her voice, though, is a husky purr as she says, "no."

to follow up, she feeds him a bit of truth before her inquiry: "i've never been to kanto though. did you like it? i hear the climate is lovely. less...wet."

Zev Harcourt

☉

the pokemon rattles at the bars of its cage. one of her big cats lounges in plush pillows nearby, watching it with gleaming yellow eyes. drool gathers at the corner of its mouth. anya brushes her knuckles against its snout and it rumbles out a purr in response.

her appointment isn't for another ten minutes. she's been preparing the lab for nearly an hour. 

procuring the linoone hadn't been difficult. she's worked with them in the past before. she would have preferred to work on a rat, but linoone are cousins and they have more...potential.

her pyroar hisses lowly. "come in," she says before he can knock.

Killian Decker

☉

hmm, decidedly not her tastes then. she laments the loss of her jazz bar. with her newest play in the game, she's little time to take a charter boat all the way out to lilycove. flying, she can admit, is not a favorite past-time of hers. 

"sounds like i wouldn't." like it, that is. all the more befuddling for him if she were to show.

now that she has commandeered the conversation, she does not give up the control so easily. her work is forgotten now, but that doesn't stop her from rifling through papers, organizing and folding some of her notes in her desk drawer. 

"your file says you're from kanto." she smiles, showing teeth. "did you travel much to unova?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

"i prefer a battlefield of tact," she purrs, "but i suppose that's why we have people like you." beasts. monsters. anya certainly isn't afraid to get her hands dirty, but she lacks the coordination and the physical prowess to bring about demise. her method is more surgical in nature. 

her own shadow pokemon didn't last long. it ended up a torn open carcass in its crate, its gore lapped up by the ultra beast in her desk drawer. 

"i have not," she says truthfully. "but i've been looking for a haunt. is it nice?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

"a refreshing take," she says, albeit dryly. "the rest of our colleagues still seem rather infatuated with them." but everyone wants a piece of something they can't have. they don't yet know how fruitless that endeavor is, how unrewarding it is to twist life when you've molded it from nothing with your own two hands. 

"i've still yet to reacquaint myself with all of the resources our database has to offer." not for lack of trying. nothing about anya shows exhaustion, but she is only human.

sleep and other basic necessities are tiresome, but they are unavoidable.

casually, albeit abruptly, she asks, "you own a bar, correct?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

they were never meant for words, the two of them. their promises have always lain in flesh, and blood. there is a hole in her chest and whatever remained of her once-beating heart, he has. it is not a fickle thing. it is wholly dependent, beating without nourishment. 

that he may have missed her presence while she was absent does not affect her. that he may not have missed her presence draws the same inconsequential nothing. 

she takes a sip of her wine, lips parted as she sucks slowly, savoring the taste of it on the back of her tongue. 

"darling," she says in response with a tilt of her head, a dip of her glass. "why, pray tell, are you so incensed?"

FERNANDO SILPH

☉

there is a perfect replica of a kandinsky on her wall and she turns her gaze towards it while he asks his question. the words roll lazily through her and she picks apart his cadence, the breath he takes between each word. by the time he's finished, he can see the half-smile from his 3/4 view. 

"tolerance," she says with a shrug.

"have you known addicts, mr. harcourt?" pink mist fantasies dance behind her eyelids when she blinks. "do you know why so many of our grunts knock down doors shaking those poor schmucks for money? and i'm talking in the proverbial sense - not to keep the machine going, as it were.

"heroin is not so expensive, in the grand scheme of things. not until the third, fourth, fifth time and you realize that paltry amount you bought isn't getting you anywhere."

she relents. "or perhaps they were part of a larger scheme conducted by our adversaries and shadow pokemon no longer have a role to play."

she turns to face him again, elbows on the table. her fingers lace together, chin propped on top. envy yawns widely and sits at her side, licking her claws. 

"do you have one of your own?"

Zev Harcourt

☉

people begin to file in. she watches each, lingering on the likes of Cillian Quinn and Zev Harcourt, along with the colleagues sharing her wing of the rocket headquarters: scientists oscar clayton and Naomi Sato. there are others she recognizes from meetings past, but those she had been far removed from, as per her request. 

back when her identity was as hidden from the syndicate as it was their enemies.

her gaze wanders over THEO BECKETT and jayden cross, neatly over Elisabeth Fiorelli before she blinks and looks back. the corner of her lips tilt upward, but even that evaporates when the rocket beast mint frost, masquerading as an intern on a coffee run, steps before her. 

ah, so word has traveled that quickly. that answers that question. 

"you're not the first to tell me this. curious, the impact those heartless creatures have left." she tilts her head towards their new underboss, Lulu Flint: "but contain your excitement, mint frost. unless a superior demands it, i've no interest in dithering over such outdated theses."

URIEL

☉

anya is not one for conversation or for indulging others in matters she keeps so close to heart. the comradery, the need to feel like part of a family, the sense of belonging over spilled blood - none of it has ever swept her as romantically as it has her colleagues. 

here is one such man who believes foolheartedly wholeheartedly in their organization. to her, it's a means to an end. everything on this cold, empty rock is. 

"curiosity," she says, gaze flicking decidedly towards him.

jayden cross

☉