orchid loved the water, sure, and was good at plenty of water-related activities! but never having tried surfing before, she’s not sure if that’ll be one of them. she shudders at the waves before her, certain that she’ll be overwhelmed by them.

she contemplates the move she wishes to attempt. it could go well, or it could go horribly, but she supposed it was as good as any other to give a shot. with that decision, orchid attempts a primarina twist.

lNGxaehx

☉

orchid is beaming at her previous success with the dunk tank. sure, maybe it’s not the most like her image to be grinning this widely for such a small reason, but hey — she had fun. she was having fun.

…until one glimpse ruins it all. the slightest hint of blue on yellow in someone’s hair, not too far from where she herself is standing. it isn’t styled, sure, but that can also be quickly explained away by the fact that it looks soaking. as does the person it’s attached to.

she so badly wants to explain it away as a trick of the light, as someone with similar hair dye to him — maybe a fan, someone with questionable enough taste in both clothes and music to try to mimic orchid’s ex. but no such luck. orchid can only see jupiter torres themself, in the same damn location as them. she should’ve known better than to think that moving to another entire region would spare her from her ex randomly showing, she guessed. she should’ve known better than to believe that perhaps she would be safe in a region possibly set up for doom-by-meteor.

this is cruel, considering that just moments before she had been having the time of her life and now her heart feels like it might melt into her feet in the worst way possible. leave it to jupiter, her once-love, to ruin a good thing.

tense now, she finds herself falling back into her prescribed persona. untouchable, unattainable, there for what she wanted and nothing more. she wouldn’t let jupiter get to her once more. no, she had already decided she would never be reduced to her post-breakup state again.

@jupiter

☉

orchid steps up, ready to throw. she’s only ever done a dunk tank a few times before in her life, but she’s had fun every other time; why wouldn’t she now? no matter how badly she may fail, at least there’s a possibility of dunking a fellow splashfest-goer. sorry to the random person in the tank, but the thought of a throw landing amused her.

not giving herself much time to just stand there and take space from others who may want to participate, she hurries to bring back her arm, gearing up before delivering her attempt at a throw.

2C8DvI0s

☉

orchid had all the time in the world to kill today, and she needed a break from the walking desperately. so that’s what she’s doing, leaning against the wall. her feet hurt from the hellish heels she’d been in that day, so the extra support was needed. even if it got her hoodie slightly dirty.

she pulls her hood up again, making sure her face is at least partially obscured. sure, maybe she looked a bit worrying as a result, but she would take looking worrying over being recognized.

she shudders at the memory of what had occurred last time she was recognized. the swarms hadn’t been fun to escape — she had almost thrown a heel at someone, they’d been so difficult.

so yes, she pulls back her hair and puts up her hood. at least she had remembered to change her clothes before she left the studio she’d been touring, even if she had forgotten a pair of shoes. seriously, why did she forget the shoes?

she thinks she hears something around the corner behind her, and can’t help but peek at what it is. there’s a man, just standing there, doing… absolutely nothing. he appears to be waiting, perhaps?

that made two of them. orchid looks away, turning back to leaning against the wall on her side of things. she wasn’t particularly worried about the man, he didn’t seem the type to recognize her.

@rook

☉

orchid lets out a small laugh at jupiter’s concession, “i do. i always do,” she says.

her smile fades again, not in a bad way, just in a shift of tone. “it is,” they say, surprisingly, suddenly softly, “it’s a massive one. lifechanging, even. we’re in it together.” she pauses, “i’m glad you could talk to me. that you do.” and she is. she’s happy jupiter felt they could open up to her about this — she knows it’s not the easiest thing to do, and she wants to make it clear to them that she’s a person he can come to. always. she’s undoubtedly got a soft spot for them already.

“i’m here for you. really. and if it ever becomes too much, i’ll still be there. just gotta talk to me,” still softly speaking.

it doesn’t slip past orchid that jupiter’s shifted closer now. she takes this as a sign of approval, a way of letting her know that their closeness wasn’t bothering jupiter. she shifts her hand onto jupiter’s gently. she only rests it there for now, giving jupiter opportunity to move away.

in this moment, she almost forgets all about the email, despite the open laptop sitting in front of them. it’s incredible, really, how easily distracted she could be.

@jupiter

☉

as jupiter picks up little quartz, orchid cracks a small smile. it’s a cute sight, the little pink vulpix in his arms. they seem slightly less nervous while holding quartz, and orchid makes mental note to give the tiny ones some extra treats later, for being such good emotional support.

leaning back against the cushions of the couch, she’s careful to make sure jupiter and quartz have enough room. guppy could be a space-hog sometimes, so she keeps her firmly grasped in her arms.

orchid pauses at jupiter’s admission. they hadn’t really thought that far ahead, at least in terms of negatives. usually, when thinking about a potential future as one-half of a famous duo, they could only think in positive terms. but jupiter brings up a valid point, and it makes even more sense when he mentions that he’s never been traveling.

she hadn’t been many places herself, mainly just across unova a few times, but she’d visited a couple other regions briefly to check in on relatives.

“hey,” she scoots towards jupiter a little, “that’s… that’s a fair point. it’s scary to think about what might happen,” she admits. “but… i think we’ll get used to it. together. we won’t even be alone, we’ll have each other to rely on as we figure everything out. could even be fun, like an adventure of our own. and traveling isn’t that bad, it’s mostly just annoying… a lot of waiting, honestly. and fans, popularity, are scary, i don’t have a great response to that part, but i think it’s one of those things that’ll get better with time.”

they hesitate for a moment, “and there’ll be a lot of good amongst the bad and stressful,” they reassure. “nothing is ever perfect, right? and the payoff… it’ll be great, jupiter.”

they don’t think it over much before they place their hand next to jupiter’s, on quartz, and try to give them a reassuring look.

@jupiter

☉

it takes everything in orchid to prevent herself from beginning to pick at her nails, which had been carefully done only days before. her nerves were almost getting the better of her. her maintenance of her nails meant that all of her nauseatingly nervous energy was redirected to her leg, though, which bounced up and down rapidly.

she needs this, they need this. sure, in theory, she could go off, become a solo act, do it without this whole duo-process. she already had an agent lined up for that, one that really only handled single musicians. but she doesn’t want that. she likes jupiter.

remembering her companion, she looks to him. they don’t seem to be doing any better, pacing back and forth in front of the couch. seems they both had some issues with waiting. she could hear little tip taps on the tile, and looked down to see the source; quartz had decided to follow jupiter as they paced, her little claws clacking on the ground. she didn’t seem to realize that jupiter was moving with no intent of going anywhere.

sitting up, she moves to the laptop on the table before her, giving it another refresh. nothing still. no news of denial, acceptance, or anything in-between. dear god.

“it’ll be okay,” she says out loud, not sure whether she’s trying more to reassure jupiter or herself, “we’ve totally got this.” she isn’t so sure, in reality.

she reaches for guppy, who had been curled up close to her. dragging the small creature into her lap, she places a hand on her and pats, hoping it’ll bring some sort of grounding reassurance.

@jupiter

☉